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. 2025 Jun 27:69:103111.
doi: 10.1016/j.jcot.2025.103111. eCollection 2025 Oct.

Semi-constrained and constrained knee arthroplasty for distal femur nonunion & mal-union

Sharath Kittanakere Ramanath  1 , L Vishwas  1 , D Punith  2 , Gopalakrishna Pattar  3 , Basavaraj Daddenavar  1
Affiliations

Semi-constrained and constrained knee arthroplasty for distal femur nonunion & mal-union

Sharath Kittanakere Ramanath et al. J Clin Orthop Trauma. .

Abstract

Background: This study aims to evaluate the outcomes and complications associated with the use of semi-constrained and constrained prostheses in addressing mal-union and non-union of distal femur fractures. The objective is to provide a pain-free, mobile, and stable joint.

Methods: The study involved 9 patients with a mean age of 48.7 ± 12.2 years, the majority of whom were male (7 out of 9, or 77.7 %). Seven cases were completed in a single stage, while the remaining two cases were conducted in two stages, with a two-day interval between them. All patients were monitored at regular intervals of 6 weeks for the first 6 months, and then every 6 months for a duration of 3 years.

Results: The median duration of follow up was 24 months with a range of 18-72 months and majority (55.5 %) of them had follow up for 24 months. Maximum of the study subjects (66.7 %) had range of motion ranging from 81 to 120° postoperatively, 100.0 % did not require assistance while walking and 22.2 % reported complications where two of them required staged short interval replacement and one along with that had post-op superficial wound infection for 15 days.

Conclusion: Hinged knee prosthesis is a useful single stage option that allows immediate full weight bearing, restores most patients to an acceptable functional status capable of doing all activities of daily living and gives favorable outcomes.

Keywords: Arthroplasty; FEMORAL FRACTURES DISTAL; KNEE; MALUNITED; Replacement.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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