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Kinematically aligned total knee arthroplasty reduces knee adduction moment more than mechanically aligned total knee arthroplasty

  • Knee
  • Published:
Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy Aims and scope

Abstract

Purpose

Knee adduction moment (KAM) has been recognized as a good clinical surrogate for medial tibiofemoral joint loading and is associated with implant durability after total knee arthroplasty (TKA). This study aimed to examine the effects of joint line obliquity in kinematically aligned TKA (KA-TKA) on KAM during gait.

Methods

The study enrolled 21 knees from 18 patients who underwent cylindrical axis reference KA-TKA and a matched group of 21 knees from 18 patients who underwent mechanically aligned (MA)-TKA as controls. Gait analyses were performed the day before TKA and at an overall mean of 2.6 years postoperatively. First peak KAM and variables associated with frontal knee kinetics were determined and compared between groups.

Results

In KA-TKA, the proximal tibia was resected with 3.4° ± 1.5° of varus in relation to the mechanical axis, and the final femorotibial shaft axis was 176.7° ± 3.8° with KA-TKA and 174.4° ± 3.0° with MA-TKA. KAM was significantly smaller with KA-TKA than with MA-TKA (p < 0.032). Regarding variables affecting KAM, significant differences were evident between the two TKAs for knee adduction angle (p = 0.0021), lever arm (p = 0.028), and Δlever arm (p = 0.0001).

Conclusions

In KA-TKA, joint line obliquity reduced peak KAM during gait, despite slight varus limb alignment, and this reduced KAM in KA-TKA can tolerate constitutional varus alignment. In clinical settings, KA-TKA thus represents a promising technical option for patients with large coronal bowing of the shaft carrying a risk of increased KAM after TKA.

Level of evidence

III.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, School of Medicine, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan

    Yasuo Niki, Katsuya Nagai, Shu Kobayashi & Kengo Harato

  2. Department of Clinical Biomechanics, School of Medicine, Keio University, 35 Shinanomachi, Shinjuku, Tokyo, 160-8582, Japan

    Takeo Nagura

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  1. Yasuo Niki
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Takeo Nagura.

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Conflict of interest

Niki Y, Nagura T, Nagai K, Kobayashi S, and Harato K declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Ethical approval

All study protocols were approved by the Institutional Review Board of our institution (#2008054).

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from each patient prior to initiation of the study.

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Niki, Y., Nagura, T., Nagai, K. et al. Kinematically aligned total knee arthroplasty reduces knee adduction moment more than mechanically aligned total knee arthroplasty. Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc 26, 1629–1635 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00167-017-4788-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00167-017-4788-z

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