Factors affecting the postoperative limb alignment and clinical outcome after Oxford unicompartmental knee arthroplasty

Abstract

We evaluated the postoperative mechanical axis deviation and clinical outcome according to bearing size, femoral component position, and tibial resection angle after unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA). A total of 104 patients with 124 knees underwent Oxford phase 3 UKA. The overall changes in mechanical axis deviation and tibiofemoral angle were significantly different according to bearing size (P = .001 and < .001), but they were not significantly different according to the tibial resection angle and femoral component position. The postoperative mechanical axis fell into the zone C or zone 2 in 108 knees (87%) and into the zone 3 or zone 4 in 16 cases (13%). One hundred eight cases, which had the mechanical axis passing the zone C or zone 2, did not show any progression of arthritis. Limb alignment is a function of the thickness of the bearing rather than alignments of femoral and tibial implant.