REGISTRY REVIEW: Partial Knee Arthroplasty in the US
Primary total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is one of the most commonly performed orthopaedic procedures in the US. The same cannot be said for partial knee arthroplasty: According 2020 Annual Report from the American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR), unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (medial and lateral UKA) accounted for just 4.1% of knee replacements in 2019, compared with 8.2% in 2012, and patellofemoral arthroplasty decreased from a high of 1.7% in 2016 to 0.04% in 2019.
Even for Healthy Patients, Bilateral Simultaneous TKA May Not Be Safe
With surgeons offering total knee arthroplasty (TKA) to increasingly younger patients with osteoarthritis and other degenerative conditions, the idea that both knees could be replaced during the same operation is appealing. Many of these patients still work, and by undergoing surgery only once, they minimize time off from work and, theoretically, minimize the risk of complications from a second anesthesia and hospitalization.
Why You Feel Your Knee Giving Out
The symptom of a knee giving out is most often due to a ligament injury. The knee is held together by ligaments, structures that connect two bones. There are four major and many secondary ones. The sensation of instability—the feeling of your knee giving out—is often due to an injury to at least one of them, which leads to the bones not being held tightly enough in position.
Study Finds Corticosteroid Injections May Not Hasten Progression of Knee OA
According to the findings of new study presented at the ACR Convergence 2020, the annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology: Patients with knee OA who had corticosteroid injections did not show faster progression of OA or of needing TKA than patients who had hyaluronic acid injections, which have not been associated with cartilage loss.