Return to sport following distal femur osteotomy: a systematic review

Distal femur osteotomies (DFOs) are well-accepted procedures in treating unicompartmental knee osteoarthritis associated with valgus malalignment. This study aims to investigate the Return to sport (RTS) after DFO.

We conducted a systematic review of the literature according to the PRISMA guidelines, including all articles published in English, with no time limit, excluding double-level knee osteotomies.

Five articles were included for an overall cohort of 76 patients. The mean follow-up was 45.53 months. The mean age of the patients at the time of surgery was 33.87 years, and the mean malalignment was 5.59° in valgus. In 70 cases, patients received a lateral DFO, while in 6 cases, a medial closing-wedge DFO. An RTS of 86.1% was observed after DFO and a mean time to RTS of 12.3 months. 76.8% of patients recovered to a level equal to or higher than that practiced before the onset of symptoms. No statistically significant differences were observed in the RTS rate between those who performed lateral or medial DFO.

RTS after DFO is ubiquitous and occurs around one year after surgery. In most cases, patients report improved performance compared to what they experienced before the onset of symptoms. Unfortunately, while athletes often have RTS at a similar or better level, other patients often see a return to lower impact sports.