How often is the office visit needed? Predicting total knee arthroplasty revision risk using pain/function scores.

Background: Most patients have favorable outcomes after primary total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Well-validated methods to predict the risk of poor outcomes have not been developed or implemented. Several patients have annual clinic visits despite well-funcitoning TKA, as a routine practice, to detect early failure requiring revision surgery.

Revision surgery for patellofemoral problems: should we always resurface?

Background: Routine patellar resurfacing performed at the time of knee arthroplasty is controversial, with some evidence of utility in both TKA (tricompartmental) and bicompartmental knee arthroplasty. However, whether one approach results in better implant survival remains unclear.

Questions/purposes: We asked whether (1) routine patellar resurfacing in TKAs resulted in lower cumulative revision rates compared to bicompartmental knee arthroplasties, (2) patella-friendly implants resulted in lower cumulative revision rates than earlier designs, and (3) bicompartmental knee arthroplasties revised to TKAs had higher cumulative revision rates than primary TKAs.

Do men outperform women during orthopaedic residency training?

Background: Orthopaedic surgery residency has one of the lowest percentages of women (13.1%) of all primary surgical specialties. There are many possible reasons for this, including bias during the selection process.

Do porous tantalum implants help preserve bone?: evaluation of tibial bone density surrounding tantalum tibial implants in TKA.

Background: TKA with conventional metal-backed tibial implants subjects the tibial metaphysis to stress shielding, with resultant loss of bone density.

Questions/purposes: We hypothesized tibial bone mineral density in patients with porous tantalum (trabecular metal) tibial baseplates would (1) more closely parallel tibial bone mineral density in the nonoperative control limb and (2) be better maintained than in conventional historical controls.

Patients And Methods: We prospectively followed 41 patients (35 men, six women) 60 years of age or younger undergoing TKA with uncemented trabecular metal tibial components.