INCIDENCE OF PERMANENT PREOPERATIVE FLEXION ON OUTCOME OF TOTAL KNEE ARTHROPLASTY.

Purpose: One of the difficult problems during the implantation of a total knee prosthesis is the presence of preoperative stiffness or permanent flexion.The later is a sign of advanced stage degradation due to osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis. We wanted to describe the technical specificities of a total knee arthroplasty (TKA) implanted in patients with permanent flexion and to analyse long-term outcome.Material and methods: We studied a series of 826 posterior stabilised TKA (HLS) implanted since 1988 (followed prospectively since 1995). We defined three groups of patients according to the degree of preoperative flexion: group I (0°–10°), group II (11°–20°), and group III (> 20°). We evaluated the operative technique itself, then analysed long-term clinical and radiological outcome using the IKS scores.Results: There was no significant difference in the objective or subjective clinical or radiological outcomes in the first two groups (I and II). Outcome appeared to be less satisfactory in patients ...