Soft tissue balancing sensors may improve clinical outcomes after TKA
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Key takeaways:
- Patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty with soft tissue balancing sensors may achieve more exercise.
- Soft tissue balancing sensors may also yield earlier stop in narcotic use and unassisted ambulation.
GRAPEVINE, Texas — Use of intraoperative soft tissue balancing sensors to guide soft tissue release may improve clinical outcomes in the early postoperative period after total knee arthroplasty, according to results presented here.
“Primary total knee arthroplasty balanced with intraoperative compartment load measurements guiding soft tissue releases seemed to reveal less reported pain, lower and shorter narcotic requirements, earlier unassisted ambulation, more rapid exercise progressions and improved [Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score for Joint Replacement (KOOS-JR)] scores, but only in the early initial recovery, within the first 6 weeks or so,” Alexander P. Sah, MD, said during his presentation at the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons Annual Meeting.
Sah and colleagues randomly assigned 80 patients undergoing TKA into groups based on whether the surgeon used intraoperative soft tissue balancing sensors to perform soft tissue release or if intraoperative pressure measurements were recorded but had no influence on the balancing technique. Outcomes measured included mediolateral compartment pressure, releases performed, knee range of motion, pain scores, exercises completed and patient diary of goals reached and narcotics used.
Sah said patients who underwent soft tissue release with intraoperative soft tissue balancing sensors had more pressure-balanced knees. He also said patients in the sensor-balancing group achieved more exercises, discontinued narcotics sooner with fewer total pills used and ambulated without assistance sooner compared with patients in the non-sensor group.
In addition, both groups experienced improvements in KOOS JR, pain scores at 2 and 6 weeks, narcotics used at 2 weeks, total pills used at 6 weeks and when narcotics were stopped, according to Sah.
“The clinical benefits of intraoperative load sensing technologies seem to be realized immediately and does continue through that early recovery only,” Sah said. “It will be interesting to see whether other technologies or robotic gap balancing techniques can lead to the same result.”
He concluded, “While wearable knee-tracking motion sensors did not reveal differences in early motion, it may encourage patient engagement thereby recovering earlier outcome differences in the immediate postoperative period.”
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Sah AP, et al. Paper 39. Presented at: American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons Annual Meeting; Nov. 2-5, 2023; Grapevine, Texas.
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