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Prevention of pseudo-patella baja during total knee arthroplasty

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

Abstract

Purpose

Pseudo-patella baja (PPB) is a surgical complication that can arise from total knee arthroplasty and occurs when the patella tendon is not shortened but the level of the femorotibial joint line is elevated. The goal of this study was to assess the performance of a technique specifically designed to prevent the occurrence of PPB and its radiological results.

Methods

Ninety-nine patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty were included. Patients were divided into a non-correction group and a correction group. The correction group were applied an additional metal block in order to reduce the excess resection of the distal femur. To evaluate PPB, the change in the pre- and postoperative joint line was measured using the modified Blackburne–Peel Index (BPI).

Results

In the non-correction group, 68 of 74 cases showed an occurrence of PPB (92 %), in the correction group, 6 of 57 cases showed an occurrence of PPB (11 %). The preoperative-modified BPI of the non-correction group was not significantly different from that of the correction group (0.6 ± 0.1 vs. 0.6 ± 0.2). The modified BPI decreased significantly in the non-correction group after TKA (0.6 ± 0.1 vs. 0.2 ± 0.1, p < 0.05). However, the modified BPI did not change significantly in the correction group after TKA (0.6 ± 0.2 vs. 0.6 ± 0.2).

Conclusion

The comparison of preoperative and postoperative radiological results showed that our intervention maintained the joint line without elevation. We proposed an effective method to prevent various complications due to the joint line elevation that occur in PPB.

Level of evidence

III.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, 81 Irwon-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, 135-710, Korea

    Jai-Gon Seo, Young-Wan Moon, Byung-Hoon Lee, Moon-Jong Chang & Byung-Chul Jo

  2. Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Samsung Changwon Hospital, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Changwon, Korea

    Sang-Min Kim

  3. Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, National Health Insurance Service Ilsan Hospital, Ilsan, Korea

    Sang-Hoon Park

Authors
  1. Jai-Gon Seo
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  2. Young-Wan Moon
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  3. Sang-Min Kim
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  4. Sang-Hoon Park
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  5. Byung-Hoon Lee
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  6. Moon-Jong Chang
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  7. Byung-Chul Jo
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Correspondence to Byung-Chul Jo.

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Seo, JG., Moon, YW., Kim, SM. et al. Prevention of pseudo-patella baja during total knee arthroplasty. Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc 23, 3601–3606 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00167-014-3257-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00167-014-3257-1

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