[Unicompartmental knee arthroplasty - a solution?]

Unicompartmental knee arthroplasty - a solution? Abstract. Unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) has various advantages over total knee arthroplasty (TKA); however, national joint registries communicate a significantly higher revision rate. Nevertheless, good results with high patient satisfaction can be achieved by appropriate patient selection. The good functional outcome may be due to the philosophy of the procedure, since the unicompartmental joint replacement is a pure resurfacing replacement, which aims to restore the individual, variable native, pre-arthrotic alignment, joint line and knee laxity, thus respecting the kinematics of the native knee joint. In addition, important proprioceptive structures such as ligaments are preserved. The advantages of unicompartmental joint replacement (minimally invasive procedure, preserving ligaments, cartilage and bone stock, more physiological kinematics, faster rehabilitation and easier revision surgery) outweigh the disadvantages of this procedure (technically more demanding, higher revision rate in national registers).