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Difference in knee rotation between total and unicompartmental knee arthroplasties during stair climbing

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

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to compare knee kinematics during stair walking in patients with simultaneous total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and unicompartmental knee arthroplasties (UKA). It was hypothesized that UKA would reproduce more normalized knee kinematics than TKA during stair ascent and descent.

Methods

Six patients who received UKA in one knee and TKA in the other knee were included in the study. For this study, a four-step staircase was assembled with two force platforms being positioned at the centre of the second and third steps. Each patient was attached with 16 reflective markers at both lower extremities and was asked to perform five roundtrip trials of stair climbing. Kinematic parameters including stance duration, knee angle, vertical ground reaction force (GRF), joint reaction force, and moments were obtained and analysed using a10-camera motion system (VICON, Oxford, UK). Nonparametric Friedman test was used to compare the results between two arthroplasty methods and between stair ascent and descent.

Results

Compared to TKA, UKA knees exhibited significantly greater degree of rotation in transverse planes (5.0 degrees during ascent and 6.0 degrees during descent on average), but showed no difference in terms of the other parameters. When comparing the results during stair ascent with descent, overall greater knee angle, vertical GRF, joint reaction force, and moment were observed during stair descent.

Conclusions

Both UKA and TKA knees have shown overall similar knee kinematics, though UKA knee may allow greater degree of rotation freedom, which resembles normal knee kinematics during stair walking.

Level of evidence

Case–control study, Level III.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by a grant of the Korean Health Technology R&D Project, Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea (A091120) and was supported by the Bio & Medical Technology Development Program of the National Research Foundation (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (NRF-2011-0019730).

Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Industrial Engineering, Ajou University College of Engineering, Suwon, South Korea

    Myung-Chul Jung, Hui Wang & Jaejin Hwang

  2. Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Ajou University School of Medicine, Wellbeing Center 8th Floor, 164 Worldcup-ro, Youngtong-gu, Suwon, 443-749, South Korea

    Jun Young Chung, Kwang-Hyun Son, Jay Joong Kim, Joon Ho Kim & Byoung-Hyun Min

  3. Department of Molecular Medicine, Ajou University College of Engineering, Suwon, South Korea

    Byoung-Hyun Min

Authors
  1. Myung-Chul Jung
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  2. Jun Young Chung
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  4. Hui Wang
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  5. Jaejin Hwang
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  6. Jay Joong Kim
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Byoung-Hyun Min.

Additional information

Myung-Chul Jung and Jun Young Chung have contributed equally as the first author.

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Jung, MC., Chung, J.Y., Son, KH. et al. Difference in knee rotation between total and unicompartmental knee arthroplasties during stair climbing. Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc 22, 1879–1886 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00167-014-3064-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00167-014-3064-8

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