Greater satisfaction in older patients with a mobile-bearing compared with fixed-bearing total knee arthroplasty

A prospective, randomized, controlled, double-blind trial was performed to compare outcomes between 61 mobile- and 58 fixed-bearing primary TKAs in patients aged 70 years or older. At last follow-up, no difference was found for Knee Society score. The mobile-bearing group had greater knee flexion at 3 and 6 months, but this was similar at 2 years. The patient satisfaction was better in the mobile-bearing group than in fixed-bearing group, with respect to Knee Society functional score, Western Ontario MacMasters University score, Short-Form 12 score, and visual analog scale score. A multivariate analysis confirmed that the only independent factors predictive of postoperative quality of life were early postoperative flexion. We believe that better perception and satisfaction with mobile-bearing in older patients was due to the earlier regain of their knee flexion. Our results justify the use of mobile-bearing design in the older population.