Management of Periprosthetic Fracture in Unicompartmental Knee Arthroplasty Patients: A Case Series

Abstract

Unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) has been one of the treatment modality specifically for unicompartmental osteoarthritis of the knee. The advantages of UKA are faster recovery period, shorter length of hospital stay, reduced morbidity, and good functional outcome. However, one of the complications in UKA is periprosthetic fracture where most papers suggested a surgical intervention such as revision to total knee replacement. In our six years of experience with UKA surgery from 2005 to 2010, we encountered six periprosthetic fractures out of 966 knees that were operated on among 901 patients. Five patients were treated conservatively by casting and were advised not to bear weight on the affected side. One patient was revised to total knee replacement immediately. Each patient underwent a series of scoring system such as Knee Society Clinical Rating and Oxford Questionnaire to evaluate the outcome of treatment. The results were variable with only one patient showing reasonable improvement by conservative management alone. Another three patients did not show significant functional improvements despite the fractures healing. One patient developed non-union and had to undergo internal fixation to correct the deformity. The patient who underwent a revision to total knee replacement showed significant improvement. We conclude that surgical intervention produced better outcome. Revision to total knee replacement was the preferred treatment.