Sports activities after medial unicompartmental knee arthroplasty Oxford III-what can we expect?

Purpose: Excellent long-term results have been reported for implantation of unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA). In many patients the desire for improvement in function often includes an aspiration to return to sports. The purpose of our study was to evaluate physical activities after medial Oxford-III (Biomet) UKA surgery.

Methods: Patients' physical activity before and after the surgery was assessed using a self reporting questionnaire. We used the Oxford knee scoring system (OKS), the WOMAC-, the Knee society- (KSS) and the UCLA-score to assess postoperative knee function. The mean follow-up was 4.2 years. The female-to-male ratio was 1.3:1. The mean age at surgery was 65.3 years.

Results: Of the 131 patients studied 78 participated in some kind of sports before surgery (mean age 64.4 years), while 53 patients did not perform any sports (mean age 66.5 years) (p > 0.05). At follow-up the patients in the active group were significantly younger than the patients in the inactive group (p < 0.05). The majority of patients (80.1 %) returned to their level of sports activity after UKA surgery. Six patients took up sports after surgery while 15 patients stopped their sports. Among the active patients we found a shift from high- towards low-impact sports. The active patients had significantly higher scores for the OKS, KSS, WOMAC and UCLA score. The complication rate was comparable in both groups.

Conclusion: Our study demonstrates that a high degree of patient satisfaction in terms of sports activity can be achieved using the Oxford-III UKA for medial osteoarthritis.