Preoperative Knee Templating Accuracy Does Not Predict Radiographic or Clinical Outcome in Total Knee Arthroplasty

Area of Science:

• Orthopedic Surgery
• Biomedical Engineering
• Radiology

Background:

• Accurate preoperative planning is crucial for successful total knee arthroplasty (TKA).
• Digital templating offers a modern approach to preoperative planning in TKA.
• Evaluating the accuracy and clinical impact of digital templating is essential for optimizing TKA outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the accuracy of digital templating in estimating component size for primary TKA.
• To determine if accurate digital templating correlates with improved clinical and radiographic outcomes following TKA.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective review of 178 primary TKAs with preoperative digital templating.
• Comparison of templated component sizes with actual implanted sizes.
• Assessment of postoperative coronal alignment and 2-year clinical outcomes (UCLA Activity Scale, Knee Society Scores).

Main Results:

• Digital templating demonstrated high accuracy, estimating tibial size within one size in 95% of cases and femoral size in 99% of cases.
• Templating accuracy did not show a significant correlation with postoperative coronal alignment.
• No correlation was found between templating accuracy and 2-year clinical outcomes, including activity scores, function, expectation, or satisfaction.

Conclusions:

• Preoperative digital templating reliably estimates femoral and tibial component sizes within one size for TKA.
• Despite accurate size estimation, digital templating accuracy did not correlate with improved radiographic or clinical outcomes at the 2-year follow-up.