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28 What Do Radiographs Tell Us?

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The Unhappy Total Knee Replacement
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Abstract

In almost any case of a painful total knee replacement (TKR), conventional radiographic evaluation will be the primary radiological investigation after thorough history taking and detailed clinical examination. Its high availability, short time of image acquisition, considerably low cost and low dose of radiation make it an ideal first-line diagnostic in the assessment of painful TKR. Most severe pathologies, such as prosthetic loosening, component malpositioning, implant failure, or periprosthetic fractures can be identified at this stage or at least suspected on standard radiographs if a proper standardized imaging technique is used. More subtle changes can be missed and might require further diagnostic investigations.

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Correspondence to Philipp Henle MD .

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Henle, P., Eggli, S. (2015). 28 What Do Radiographs Tell Us?. In: Hirschmann, M., Becker, R. (eds) The Unhappy Total Knee Replacement. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08099-4_34

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08099-4_34

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-08098-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-08099-4

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