Current Concepts on Unicompartmental Knee Arthroplasty.

Abstract

Unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) represents a treatment option to address knee pain deriving from either the medial or lateral compartment of the knee. Compared to total knee arthroplasty, UKA offers the advantages of preserving native bone stock, offering less surgical exposure and risks, and better restoring native knee kinematics. The UKA is a specialized procedure that has its best outcomes in the hands of an experienced surgeon who performs UKA repeatedly and with proper patient selection. In this review, we discuss current concepts for both medial UKA and lateral UKA with regard to indications, isolated knee compartment osteoarthritis clinical and radiographic work-up, surgical approaches, and patient outcomes, as well as analyzing the differences between fixed-bearing and mobile-bearing implant designs.