Tibial Slope is Highly Variable in Patients Undergoing Primary Total Knee Arthroplasty: Analysis of 13,546 Computed Tomography Scans

• Published in: The Journal of arthroplasty Vol. 30; no. 7; pp. 1228 - 1232
• Main Authors: Meric, Gokhan, MD, Gracitelli, Guilherme C., MD, Aram, Luke, BS, Swank, Michael, MD, Bugbee, William D., MD
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.07.2015
• Subjects: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Arthroplasty, Replacement, Knee; Female; Humans; knee anatomy; limb alignment; Male; mechanical axis; Middle Aged; Orthopedics; Osteoarthritis, Knee - surgery; posterior tibial slope; Reference Values; Retrospective Studies; Tibia - anatomy & histology; Tibia - diagnostic imaging; Tomography, X-Ray Computed; total knee arthroplasty; total knee arthroplasty; posterior tibial slope; limb alignment; mechanical axis; knee anatomy
• ISSN: 0883-5403; 1532-8406
• DOI: 10.1016/j.arth.2015.02.012

Abstract The purpose of this study was to retrospectively measure with computed tomography (CT) the posterior tibial slope (PTS) to establish the average anatomy and the incidence of outliers in patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Our cohort included 13,546 arthritic patients: 8241 (61%) female; 5305 (39%) male. The average PTS angle was 7.2° ± 3.7° (range, − 5° to 25°). The average of PTS angle of the males was 7.17° ± 3.82° and females was 7.24° ± 3.57°. A significant number of patients 35.0% (4149) were identified outliers in PTS. 1568 (11.6%) patients’ PTS angle was less than 4°, 2581 (19.1%) patients’ PTS angle was more than 10°. These data can be useful to determine optimum techniques and methodology to perform more accurate TKA.