The purpose of this study was to evaluate the femoral component rotation in a small subset of patients who had developed arthrofibrosis after mobile-bearing total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Arthrofibrosis was defined as flexion less than 90 degrees or a flexion contracture greater than 10 degrees following TKA. From a consecutive cohort of 3,058 mobile-bearing TKAs, 49 (1.6%) patients were diagnosed as having arthrofibrosis, of which 38 (86%) could be recruited for clinical assessment. Femoral rotation of a control group of 38 asymptomatic TKA patients matched for age, gender, and body mass index was also evaluated. The surgical epicondylar axis was compared with the posterior condylar axis for the femoral prosthesis. Femoral components in the arthrofibrosis group were significantly internally rotated by a mean of 4.7 degrees (SD 2.2 degrees , range 10 degrees internal to 1 degrees external). In the control group, the femoral component had a mean 0.3 degrees internal rotation (SD 2.3 degrees , range 4 degrees internal to 6 degrees external). Following mobile-bearing TKA, there is a significant correlation between internal femoral component rotation and chronic arthrofibrosis.

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Synovial membrane thickening and neovascularity are characteristic sonographic findings for the diagnosis of arthrofibrosis associated with total knee arthroplasty.

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Ceramic-on-metal (CoM) is a relatively new bearing combination for total hip arthroplasty (THA) with few reported outcomes. A total of 287 CoM THAs were carried out in 271 patients (mean age 55.6 years (20 to 77), 150 THAs in female patients, 137 in male) under the care of a single surgeon between October 2007 and October 2009. With the issues surrounding metal-on-metal bearings the decision was taken to review these patients between March and November 2011, at a mean follow-up of 34 months (23 to 45) and to record pain, outcome scores, radiological analysis and blood ion levels. The mean Oxford Hip Score was 19.2 (12 to 53), 254 patients with 268 hips (95%) had mild/very mild/no pain, the mean angle of inclination of the acetabular component was 44.8(o) (28(o) to 63(o)), 82 stems (29%) had evidence of radiolucent lines of > 1 mm in at least one Gruen zone and the median levels of cobalt and chromium ions in the blood were 0.83 μg/L (0.24 μg/L to 27.56 μg/L) and 0.78 μg/L (0.21 μg/L to 8.84 μg/L), respectively. The five-year survival rate is 96.9% (95% confidence interval 94.7% to 99%). Due to the presence of radiolucent lines and the higher than expected levels of metal ions in the blood, we would not recommend the use of CoM THA without further long-term follow-up. We plan to monitor all these patients regularly.