Purpose: Surgeons with higher medial unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) usage have lower UKA revision rates. However, an increase in UKA usage may cause a decrease of total knee arthroplasty (TKA) usage. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of UKA usage on revision rates and patient-reported outcomes (PROMs) of UKA, TKA, and combined UKA + TKA results.
Methods: Using the New Zealand Registry Database, surgeons were divided into six groups based on their medial UKA usage: < 1%, 1-5%, 5-10%, 10-20%, 20-30% and > 30%. A comparison of UKA, TKA and UKA + TKA revision rates and PROMs using the Oxford Knee Score (OKS) was performed.
Results: A total of 91,895 knee arthroplasties were identified, of which 8,271 were UKA (9.0%). Surgeons with higher UKA usage had lower UKA revision rates, but higher TKA revision rates. The lowest TKA and combined UKA + TKA revision rates were observed for surgeons performing 1-5% UKA, compared to the highest TKA and UKA + TKA revision rates which were seen for surgeons using > 30% UKA (p < 0.001 TKA; p < 0.001 UKA + TKA). No clinically important differences in UKA + TKA OKS scores were seen between UKA usage groups at 6 months, 5 years, or 10 years.
Conclusion: Surgeons with higher medial UKA usage have lower UKA revision rates; however, this comes at the cost of a higher combined UKA + TKA revision rate that is proportionate to the UKA usage. There was no difference in TKA + UKA OKS scores between UKA usage groups. A small increase in TKA revision rate was observed for high-volume UKA users (> 30%), when compared to other UKA usage clusters. A significant decrease in UKA revision rate observed in high-volume UKA surgeons offsets the slight increase in TKA revision rate, suggesting that UKA should be performed by specialist UKA surgeons.
Level of evidence: III, Retrospective therapeutic study.
Keywords: Revision; Survivorship; Total knee arthroplasty; Unicompartmental knee arthroplasty.
© 2021. The Author(s).