Managing arthritis - partial knee replacement

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  (surgical)
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Partial (or unicompartmental) knee replacement is the surgical replacement of part of the knee joint.

Partial/unicompartmental knee replacement is a newer procedure than total knee replacement, and has been added to the armamentarium for those patients where the arthritis is restricted to one compartment

'Uni' = 'one'. 'Compartment' = a functional area of the knee.

So a unicompartmental knee replacement is one which replaces only one of the three compartments of the knee:

• the joint on the inner (medial) side ('medial compartment')
• the joint on the outer (lateral) side ('lateral compartment')
• the joint under the kneecap ('patello-femoral compartment')