Unicompartmental Knee Arthroplasty: Past, Present, Future

Abstract

For over fifty years, unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) has been used to treat single compartment osteoarthritis of the knee. Despite the many years of experience performing UKA, the orthopaedic community has not reached a consensus on the patient selection criteria or operative indications for UKA, due to varied outcome results in the literature. Newly designed robotic-assisted systems are believed to increase the precision and accuracy with which unicompartmental knee arthroplasty can be performed, possibly leading to fewer mechanical failures and improved functional outcomes. However, long-term follow-up is required before definitive conclusions can be reached regarding this new technology. This review examines the history of UKA, reviews early results of robotic-assisted UKA and presents an outlook on future advances. Key Words: unicompartmental knee arthroplasty, total knee, robotic assisted