Mobile bearings do not improve fixation in cemented total knee arthroplasty

Mobile bearings were introduced to improve wear and knee kinematics. By uncoupling the forces generated at the articulation from the implant-bone interface this would, theoretically, also improve the fixation of the implant to bone. We did this study to evaluate whether mobile bearings improve the fixation of the tibial component to bone. Fifty-two consecutive knees in 47 patients (average age, 72 years; range, 62-84 years) with primary osteoarthrosis were randomized into two groups to receive a cemented total knee arthroplasty with either a fixed-bearing or mobile-bearing tibial component. The quality of fixation was analyzed with radiostereometric analysis for up to 2 years. Mobile bearings did not improve fixation. Both magnitudes and directions of component rotations were similar, and the number of implants with continuous migration was almost identical. Both implant types had a combination of subsidence and lift-off, but where the mobile bearing implants displayed more of subsidence, the fixed bearing knees showed more lift-off. It might be that the somewhat stiffer cobalt-chromium baseplate or the different joint conformity used in the mobile-bearing knees counteracts any potential effects of the mobile bearing.

Therapeutic Level I. See the Guidelines for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.