Joint awareness after unicompartmental and total knee arthroplasty: Which feels more natural?

Background/Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare the joint awareness and knee function after unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA) for the management of isolated medial compartment osteoarthritis. Methods: Patients who underwent UKA or TKA at our institution for isolated medial compartment osteoarthritis from 2015 to 2020 with a minimum follow-up of I year were screened. 116 eligible patients were invited and 94 volunteer patients participated. All patients were evaluated with The Forgotten Joint Score-12 and Lysholm Knee Scale. Results: Average follow-up period was 29.13 +/- 15.48 months for UKA and 31.66 +/- 2.91 months for TKA groups (p=0.292). FJS-12 of the UKA group was significantly higher than that of the TKA group (79.74 +/- 15.06 and 63.25 +/- 19.86, respectively; p=0.024). The Lysholm Knee Scale score was also significantly higher in the UKA group compared with the TKA group (92.94 +/- 8.74 and 78.34 +/- 14.99, respectively; p = 0.002). Conclusion: Our findings suggest that patients who underwent UKA were less aware of their artificial joints and had better knee function compared to patients who underwent TKA for medial osteoarthritis of the knee.

Automated summary

The study found that patients who underwent unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) had lower joint awareness of their artificial joints and better knee function compared to patients who underwent total knee arthroplasty (TKA) for isolated medial compartment osteoarthritis.