Introduction: Knee arthrodesis is a limb salvage intervention for persistent periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) when revision total knee arthroplasty fails. Conventional arthrodesis techniques are associated with the increased rate of complications, especially in patients with extensive bone loss and extensor tendon deficiency.
Methods: Eight patients with a modular silver-coated arthrodesis implant after failed exchange arthroplasty for infection, were retrospectively reviewed. All patients had significant bone loss, while 5 displayed extensor tendon deficiency. Survivorship, complications, leg length discrepancy, median Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and Oxford Knee score (OKS) were evaluated.
Results: The median follow up was 32 months (range 24-59 months). The survivorship rate of the prosthesis was 86% during the minimum time of follow up of 24 months. In one patient recurrence of the infection was observed and above-knee amputation was performed. The median postoperative leg length discrepancy was 2.07 ± 0.67 cm. Patients were able to ambulate with mild or no pain. The median VAS and OKS was 2.14 ± 0.9 and 34.7 ± 9.3, respectively.
Conclusions: The results of our study demonstrated that knee arthrodesis with a silver coated arthrodesis implant, performed for persistent PJI in patients with significant bone loss and extensor tendon deficit, provided a stable construct, allowed eradication of infection and was associated with good functional outcome.
Keywords: knee arthrodesis; periprosthetic joint infection; silver- coated endoprosthesis.