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Review
. 2021 Aug 5;10(16):3470.
doi: 10.3390/jcm10163470.

Does Posterior Cruciate Ligament Retention or Sacrifice in Total Knee Replacement Affect Proprioception? A Systematic Review

Marco Bravi  1 , Fabio Santacaterina  1 , Federica Bressi  1 , Rocco Papalia  2 , Stefano Campi  2 , Silvia Sterzi  1 , Sandra Miccinilli  1
Affiliations
Review

Does Posterior Cruciate Ligament Retention or Sacrifice in Total Knee Replacement Affect Proprioception? A Systematic Review

Marco Bravi et al. J Clin Med. .

Abstract

Background: Proprioception is an important part of the somatosensory system involved in human motion control, which is fundamental for activities of daily living, exercise, and sport-specific gestures. When total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is performed, the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) can be retained, replaced, or discarded. The PCL seems to be responsible for maintaining the integrity of the joint position sense (JPS) and joint kinesthesia. The aim of this review was to assess the effect of PCL on knee joint proprioception in total knee replacement.

Methods: This systematic review was conducted within five electronic databases: PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane, and PEDro with no data limit from inception to May 2021.

Results: In total 10 publications were evaluated. The analysis was divided by proprioception assessment method: direct assessment (JPS, kinesthesia) and indirect assessment (balance).

Conclusions: The current evidence suggest that the retention of the PCL does not substantially improve the joint proprioception after TKA. Due to the high heterogeneity of the studies in terms of design, proprioception outcomes, evaluation methods, further studies are needed to confirm the conclusions. In addition, future research should focus on the possible correlation between joint proprioception and walking function.

Keywords: balance; joint kinesthesia; joint position sense; posterior cruciate ligament; proprioception; total knee arthroplasty; total knee replacement.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Selection flow diagram according to the PRISMA 2020 statement. From: Page, M.J.; McKenzie, J.E.; Bossuyt, P.M.; Boutron, I.; Hoffmann, T.C.; Mulrow, C.D.; Shamseer, L.; Tetzlaff, J.M.; Akl, E.A.; Brennan, S.E.; et al. The PRISMA 2020 statement: an updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews. BMJ 2021, 372, n71, doi:10.1136/bmj.n71. For more information, visit: http://www.prisma-statement.org/ (accessed on 13 May 2021).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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