Mid to long term clinical outcome of medial pivot designs

Abstract

Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA) is the standard procedure for end stage osteoarthritis of the knee. Patients enjoy pain relief, improved function and quality of life. Advanced contemporary techniques, implants, minimally invasive and fast track surgery offer far more improved outcomes in regard to patient rehabilitation and return to every-day activities. More than 400,000 knee replacements are performed each year in the USA alone and numbers are increasing worldwide. Several factors influence long term survival and outcome of TKA. Patient, diagnosis, surgical technique and implant design related factors interact in order to provide satisfactory outcome. Over the last decades, progress in implant design has been impressive. New materials and implant designs in combination with refined surgical techniques have been responsible for improved implant survival with failure rates now being at the level of 5 % at 15 years [1]. © Springer-Verlag London 2015.