The kinematic rotating hinge prosthesis for complex knee arthroplasty

Fifty-eight patients (69 knees) treated with the Kinematic Rotating Hinged knee prosthesis for complex primary and salvage revision total knee arthroplasty were followed up for an average of 75.2 months (range, 24-199 months). The indications for use of the Kinematic Rotating Hinged knee prosthesis included severe bone loss combined with ligamentous instability (30 knees), nonunion of a periprosthetic fracture (10 knees), an acute periprosthetic fracture (nine knees), severe collateral ligamentous instability (five knees), reimplantation for infection (six knees), nonunion of a supracondylar femoral fracture (four knees), congenital dislocation of the knee (three knees), and treatment of a severely comminuted distal femur (two knees). At the time of surgery, the average patient age was 72 years (range, 46-92 years). Preoperatively, knee extension averaged 4.94 degrees (range, 0 degrees-40 degrees) and flexion averaged 81 degrees (range, 15 degrees-125 degrees). At final followup, knee extension averaged 1.25 degrees (range, -5 degrees-25 degrees) and flexion averaged 94.2 degrees (range, 5 degrees-125 degrees). The preoperative Knee Society Knee score averaged 40.3 points (range, 2-93 points) and improved to 77 points (range, 33-99 points) at final followup. Complications were numerous: 23 (32%) patients experienced at least one complication and 12 (17%) patients had two or more complications. Deep periprosthetic infection was the most common complication (14.5%), followed by patellar complications (13%), and prosthetic component breakage (10%). During the period of this study, there were 15,798 primary and 2673 revision total knee arthroplasties done at the authors' institution. The patients receiving a Kinematic Rotating Hinged knee prosthesis represent a highly complex and small subset (0.37%) of the overall population having knee arthroplasty. Although the use of the Kinematic Rotating Hinged knee prosthesis for these limited indications has been useful for the authors, the incidence of complications and the poor outcome of these complications is disconcerting. Hinged total knee arthroplasty should be reserved for the final salvage option of the treatment options available when doing complex primary and salvage revision knee arthroplasties.