Short- to mid-term results of minimally invasive lateral unicompartmental knee replacement: 133 cases in a non-designer series

INTRODUCTION: The aim of the current study was to demonstrate short- to mid-term survivorship as well as clinical outcome of lateral unicompartmental knee replacement (UKR) with a fixed-bearing (FB) design from a non-designer center using the Oxford Fixed Lateral prosthesis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This single-center retrospective cohort study reports the results of 133 consecutive lateral FB-UKR. Survivorship analysis was performed with different endpoints and clinical outcome was measured using the Oxford-Knee-Score (OKS), American-Knee-Society-Score (AKSS-O), range-of-motion (ROM) and visual-analog-scale for pain (VAS). RESULTS: There were two revision surgeries with conversion to total knee replacements (TKR) due to persistent pain resulting in a survival rate of 98.5% (95% CI 93.5–99.6) with a mean follow-up (FU) of 3.3 ± 1.8 years (range 1–8.5). All outcome scores, VAS and ROM showed a significant improvement at final FU (p < 0.001). The OKS improved from 26 ± 7.8 (range 11–45) preoperatively to 39 ± 8.3 (range 13–48), the AKSS-O from 49.2 ± 14.6 (range 18–90) to 81.8 ± 15.1 (range 40–100), the AKSS-F from 53 ± 23.7 (range 0–100) to 80.4 ± 21.4 (range 5–100) and the ROM from 118 ± 17 (range 90–160) to 134 ± 9.5 (range 100–155). CONCLUSIONS: The short- to mid-term results following lateral FB-UKR demonstrate a high survivorship and good clinical outcome from an independent series. We, therefore, suggest that FB-UKR is a safe treatment option for isolated lateral OA if sufficient surgical experience is provided. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Retrospective cohort study, level IV.