The Oxford unicompartmental knee arthroplasty is a 'mobile'bearing' partial knee prosthesis ('implant'). In this 2005 publication the authors set out to determine if age - in patients over 50 - is a contraindication for the Oxford medial unicompartmental knee replacement with respect to the durability of the implant.
Patient Group
Five hundred and sixty four knees (447 patients) with Oxford medial unicompartmental knee replacements were included in the study -
- 52 knees in patients less than 60 years old (all but one was over 50)
- 512 knees in patients over 60 years old
Data was obtained from two centres -
- Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, Oxford, UK
- Skaraborg Sjukhus, Skövde, Sweden
The Study
All patients had primary osteoarthritis (OA) of the medial compartment, with the lateral compartment unaffected and the cruciate ligament intact. Damage to the patellofemoral joint was not considered an exclusion criterion. The authors did exclude patients with a fixed flexion of greater than 15 degrees and non-correctable varus deformity.
The patients were followed up for a number of years, and in the younger age group there were 21 knees where patients had been followed up for at least 10 years. Twenty of the 21 had had X-rays to look for any migration or subsidence of the components as well as any OA changes in the good (lateral) compartment.
Conclusion
Regarding this specific study, the authors conclude that for people in their 50s age is not a contraindication for using the Oxford unicompartmental arthroplasty to treat patients with anteromedial OA of the knee.