Abstract
We have examined the meaning of resurfacing the patella in Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA). We looked at 67 knee joints, including 38 osteoarthrosis (OA) and 29 rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. The implant (26 knees) and non-implant (41 knees) groups were comparable with respect to the age and length of the follow-up period. Clinical examination (anterior knee pain) and radiological measurement (patellar thickness and height, tilting angle, lateral shift and the change of degeneration of PF joint) were done, and JOA scores before and after surgery were compared.
We examined the relationship between the femoral rotational alignment, Epichondylar-AP line angle used by computed tomography, and the fitness of the patella after surgery.
We found a trend such that the groups whose fitness of the patella was worse after TKA had greater external rotation of femoral rotational alignment before surgery. Therefore, we conclude that the femoral rotational alignment is one of the standards we look for when deciding whether to resurface the patella or not before surgery.
