Single-Use Instrumentation Technologies in Knee Arthroplasty: State of the Art

The surgical site contamination and the resulting periprosthetic infections are an important cause of morbidity and socio-economic impact. In total knee arthroplasty, the single-use instrumentation is developed to simplify the surgical procedure, reduce the chance of instrument contamination, improve the operating room efficiency, and reduce overall costs (low cost of instrument washing and sterilization as well as personnel management). Surgical single-use instrumentations on the market are complete with all you need for the surgical procedure-cutting guides, conventional or PSI (patient-specific instrumentation), femoral cutting block, re-cutting block, trials components, alignment rods, inserts, and impactors. In recent years, PSI (patient-specific instrumentation) was introduced. It decreases operative time and blood loss without violating the intramedullary canal. It also allows the surgeon to preoperatively plan the patient's component size, position, and alignment. We reported an average of 30 minutes saved for each surgical procedure, a saving of 60€ for each surgical tray. Moreover, we avoided surgery cancellation or delay due to un-sterile, missing, or dysfunctional instruments. We think that this technology is the first step in developing implants that are entirely customized for each patient, and we believe that it will have a more relevant role in knee surgery in the future.