A Polished Cobalt-Chrome Baseplate is not Associated With a Lower Revision Rate Than Matt Titanium in a Single Total Knee Arthroplasty Implant System With Identical Baseplate Design.

Background: Polished baseplates were introduced into total knee arthroplasty (TKA) systems to reduce the incidence of backside wear. In 2004, a fixed-bearing knee arthroplasty system underwent a change in baseplate material from matt titanium to polished cobalt-chrome (CoCr) with the intention to reduce backside wear. Other design aspects were left unchanged. The aim of this study was to compare these implants with each baseplate using data from the Australian Orthopaedic Association National Joint Replacement Registry.

Methods: Primary TKA procedures performed between January 2010 and December 2021 for osteoarthritis, using a single design with cross-linked polyethylene inserts and matt titanium or polished CoCr baseplates, were analyzed. The primary outcome was all-cause revision, summarized using Kaplan-Meier estimates, with age- and sex-adjusted hazard ratios estimated from Cox proportional hazards models. In total, there were 2,091 procedures with matt titanium and 2,519 procedures with polished CoCr baseplates.

Results: The 9-year cumulative percent revision was 2.5% (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.8 to 3.5%) and 4.2% (95% CI 3.1 to 5.6%) for the matt titanium and CoCr groups, respectively. Compared to matt titanium, the revision rate of CoCr baseplates was not significantly higher (hazard ratio 1.44; 95% CI 0.96 to 2.15; P = .076).

Conclusions: Polished CoCr baseplates in a single TKA system were not associated with reduced all-cause revision rates compared to matt titanium up to 11 years post-TKA. Our results suggest that the predicted reduction in wear particle debris production from polished CoCr baseplates may not correlate with reduced revision rates in vivo, but further evaluation is required.