Quality of life and gait after unicondylar knee prosthesis are inferior to age-matched control subjects.

Objective: Evaluation of quality of life, gait pattern, and muscle activity after implantation of unicondylar sledge prostheses in comparison with control group.

Design: A total of 17 patients were examined at an average follow-up of 21.5 mo after implantation of unicondylar sledge prostheses. In addition to clinical evaluation with different scores, our patients underwent three-dimensional gait analysis and surface electromyographic investigation of the lower limb and quality-of-life assessment using the Short Form-36 health questionnaire. The control group consisted of 11 healthy subjects.

Results: Statistical analysis showed significantly lower results for the patient group in the Hospital for Special Surgery score, the Knee Society score, the patella score, and the Visual Analog Scale for pain. In quality of life, significant differences could be found for the following items: physical functioning, role limitation because of physical problems, and bodily pain. Electromyographic activities during gait were significantly lower in the patient group, except for the rectus femoris and the tibialis anterior. Regarding gait analysis, the variables for ground reaction forces and stride length differed significantly, whereas maximum knee extension and flexion did not.

Conclusions: Unicondylar knee replacement has failed to restore functional capabilities, quality of life, gait pattern, and muscle activity compared with healthy subjects of the same age. The assumption that unicondylar sledge prostheses preserve normal joint function must be questioned.