J-curve design total knee arthroplasty: the posterior stabilized shows wider medial pivot compared to the cruciate retaining during chair raising

• Published in: Knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA Vol. 28; no. 9; pp. 2883 - 2892
• Main Authors: Bontempi, Marco, Roberti di Sarsina, Tommaso, Marcheggiani Muccioli, Giulio Maria, Pizza, Nicola, Cardinale, Umberto, Bragonzoni, Laura, Zaffagnini, Stefano
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.09.2020; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Aged; Arthroplasty (knee); Arthroplasty, Replacement, Knee - methods; Biomechanical Phenomena; Biomechanics; Biomedical materials; Design; Equipment Design; Female; Femoral components; Femur; Humans; In vivo methods and tests; Joint surgery; Kinematics; Knee; Knee Prosthesis; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Middle Aged; Movement; Orthopedics; Osteoarthritis, Knee - surgery; Prostheses; Range of Motion, Articular - physiology; Roentgen stereophotogrammetry; Statistical analysis; Surgery; Surgical implants; Translation; Biomechanics; Dynamic RSA; Posterior stabilized; Cruciate retaining; TKA; Kinematics
• ISSN: 0942-2056; 1433-7347
• DOI: 10.1007/s00167-019-05645-6

Purpose Which total knee arthroplasty (TKA) design represents the better solution to restore a correct knee biomechanics is still debated. The aim of this study was to compare posterior stabilized (PS) and cruciate retaining (CR) version of the same TKA design (femoral component with an anatomic sagittal radius—J-curve design) by the use of dynamic Roentgen stereophotogrammetric analysis (RSA). The hypothesis was that the two models influence differently in vivo knee kinematic. Methods A cohort of 16 randomly selected patients was evaluated 9 months after surgery: Zimmer PERSONA® was implanted, eight with CR design and eight with PS design. The kinematic evaluations were performed using a Dynamic RSA (BI-STAND DRX 2) developed in our Institute, during the execution of the sit-to-stand motor task. The motion parameters were obtained using the Grood and Suntay decomposition and the low-point kinematics methods. Results PS TKA lateral femoral compartment had a wider anterior translation (17 ± 2 mm) than the medial one (11 ± 2 mm), while the two compartments of CR TKA showed a similar anterior translation (medial: 9 ± 2 mm/lateral: 11 ± 2 mm). T test for comparison between CR and PS TKA of antero-posterior translation showed a statistically significant difference ( p  < 0.05) in the flexion range between 15° and 40°. The CR prosthesis did not anteriorly translate during flexion. The PS design translated anteriorly showing a roll-forward mechanism during extension from 80° to 18° of flexion and a posterior translation from 18° to 0°. The same significant differences ( p  < 0.05) between the PS and CR groups were found comparing the low-point positions of the femoral condyles in the range of flexion between 25° and 40° for the medial compartment and between 15° and 25° for the lateral compartment. Conclusions Dynamic RSA was able to investigate for the first time in vivo the kinematic behaviour of PS and CR version of the same TKA J-curve design. PS type showed a medial pivot during sit-to-stand motion task, while the CR type showed a cylindrical movement. Further studies are needed to evaluate the impact of different TKA designs on clinical results. Level of evidence IV.