Comparison between patient specific instrumentation and traditional technique in patients with total knee arthroplasty: An observational perspective study.

Background: Total knee arthroplasty surgery (TKA) using prenavigated Patient Specific Instruments (PSI) technique represents one of the most recent technological evolutions in development of prosthetic surgery. The aim of this study was to evaluate kinematic and functional recovery of patients operated with prenavigated PSI technique compared to those operated with traditional technique.

Methods: A cohort of 20 patients is divided in two groups; some are operated with traditional technique (with NexGen Knee system) and others with prenavigated PSI technique (with eMP Knee system) at Asiago Hospital.

Computer-assisted total knee arthroplasty after prior femoral fracture without hardware removal.

This study presents a consecutive series of patients who underwent total knee arthroplasty (TKA) after prior distal femoral fracture without hardware removal. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of computer-assisted TKA in patients with posttraumatic arthritis, specifically those with retained hardware after prior distal femoral fracture. The study group included a consecutive series of 16 patients who had developed posttraumatic knee arthritis after a distal femoral fracture with retention of hardware (group A).

Is computer-assisted total knee replacement for beginners or experts? Prospective study among three groups of patients treated by surgeons with different levels of experience.

Background: Computer-assisted total knee replacement (TKR) has been shown to improve radiographic alignment and therefore the clinical outcome. Outliers with greater than 3° of varus or valgus malalignment in TKR can suffer higher failure rates. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of experience with both computer navigation and knee replacement surgery on the frequency of errors in intraoperative bone cuts and implant alignment, as well as the actual learning curve.

Post traumatic knee arthritis: navigated total knee replacement without hardware removal.

Background: The Authors present the results of a series of navigated total knee replacements (TKR) without hardware removal in patients with post-traumatic arthritis following femoral fractures. The purpose of the paper was to determine the effectiveness of computer-assisted TKR in these patients compared to routine primary implants.

Methods: Sixteen patients with post-traumatic knee arthritis following a distal femoral fracture and retained hardware were included in the study (group I).

An uncommon cause of cemented unicompartmental knee arthroplasty failure: fracture of metallic components.

Purpose: Despite good overall clinical results, unicompartmental knee replacements (UKR) are not without their problems and failures have been reported. The most common causes of UKR failure are component loosening, poor patient selection, poor surgical technique, polyethylene wear and progression of arthritis in other compartments. The purpose of this study is to present a series of atraumatic fractures of metallic components in a UKR treated in a single orthopaedic centre.

Advanced computational framework for the automatic analysis of the acetabular morphology from the pelvic bone surface for hip arthroplasty applications.

2D- and 3D-based innovative methods for surgical planning and simulation systems in orthopedic surgery have emerged enabling the interactive or semi-automatic identification of the clinical landmarks (CL) on the patient individual virtual bone anatomy. They enable the determination of the optimal implant sizes and positioning according to the computed CL, the visualization of the virtual bone resections and the simulation of the overall intervention prior to surgery. The virtual palpation of CL, highly dependent upon the examiner's expertise, was proved to be time consuming and to suffer from considerable inter-observer variability.

Computer-assisted revision of failed unicompartmental knee arthroplasty.

The authors performed a matched-paired study comparing 22 computer-assisted surgery (CAS)-unicompartmental knee replacement (UKR) revisions with a similar group of knee replacement revisions performed conventionally. The aim of the study was to assess differences in implants used in the revision, surgical time, limb alignment, joint line restoration, and procedure costs. In the conventional group, there was a higher percentage of posterior stabilized (PS) and condylar constrained knee (CCK) implants, as well as a higher percentage of augmentations/stems/offsets.