Two-Staged Total Knee Arthroplasty in Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis with Severe Flexion Deformity: A Case Report

Juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (JRA) is associated with severe flexion contracture of the knees disabling a patient's ability to walk. Although various treatment modalities are available in the literature, we report a 2-stage procedure in a case of a 22-year-old female JRA patient with bilateral severe flexion deformity of the knee: stage 1-correction of the flexion contracture deformity by ring fixators and stage 2-total knee arthroplasty (TKA) for arthritis. To the best of our knowledge, no such approach has been reported previously.

An Ilizarov ring fixator is a safe technique for gradual correction of a severe flexion deformity. Subsequent TKA can be performed as a standard procedure.