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Updated: Apr 15, 2026
In Vitro Application of a Wireless Sensor in Flexion-Extension Gap Balance of Unicompartmental Knee Arthroplasty
Published on: May 5, 2023
Lower limb alignment control: is it more challenging in lateral compared to medial unicondylar knee arthroplasty?
Saker Khamaisy1, Brian P Gladnick1, Denis Nam1
1Sports Medicine and Shoulder Service, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Hospital for Special Surgery, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY, United States.
Introduction:
Limb alignment after unicondylar knee arthroplasty (UKA) has a significant impact on outcomes. The literature lacks lateral UKA alignment studies, making our understanding of this issue based on medial UKA.
Methods:
We evaluated limb alignment in 241 patients who underwent medial (229 knees) or lateral (37 knees) UKA. Alignment was measured pre and postoperatively in radiographs and intra-operatively using a navigation system. We compared the percentage of over-correction and the difference between post-operative alignment and navigation measurement.
Results:
Percentage of overcorrection was significantly higher in the lateral UKAs (11%) compared to the medial UKAs (4%). In medial UKAs, the mean difference between the intraoperative alignment and the post-operative was 1.33°. This was significantly lower than the mean 1.86° difference in the lateral UKAs.
Conclusions:
Our data demonstrated an increased risk of "overcorrection," and greater difficulty in predicting postoperative alignment using computer navigation, when performing lateral UKAs compared to medial UKAs.
