The Role of Stability and Alignment in Improving Patient Outcomes After Total Knee Arthroplasty

Abstract

Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is an effective treatment option for many patients, but a small group of patients are dissatisfied following TKA.» Alignment, in combination with balance, stability, and knee kinematics, is an important modifiable surgical factor that can affect patient outcomes. » Driven by the subset of dissatisfied patients after TKA, new techniques have evolved in the search for a more anatomic reconstruction of individual knee morphology and a more accurate approximation of the individual lower-extremity alignment.» There is a need to optimize 3 aspects of TKA to improve patient outcomes-mechanical tooling processes, implants that resurface the epiphysis, and techniques that respect the variable anatomy of patients.

Influence of Mechanical Alignment on Functional Knee Phenotypes and Clinical Outcomes in Primary TKA: A 1-Year Prospective Analysis

“…To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study evaluating the impact of changing the patient’s functional limb and knee phenotype on clinical outcomes after MA TKA. This study confirms that a too vigorous change in a patient’s limb and knee alignment reflects poorly on clinical outcome [ 15 , 28 , 29 , 30 ]. The changes of the phenotype and, in that sense, a change of the joint line and, thereby, a change of the soft tissue tension may have a distinct impact on the short and long-term outcome.…”