High Survivorship of Short-Cemented Femoral Stems in Condylar Revision Total Knee Arthroplasty Without Significant Metaphyseal Bone Loss: Minimum 5-Year Follow-Up

We aimed to evaluate the outcomes of hybrid fixation technique in condylar revision total knee arthroplasty (rTKA) using cementless metaphyseal tibial sleeves and short-cemented femoral stems with a rotating platform articulation.

Retrospective consecutive study of all condylar rTKAs with a cemented femoral stem between 2009 and 2016 was conducted. Patients were identified using a local prospective database and linkable data obtained from the National Joint Registry for rTKA. Demographic, clinical, and surgical data were collected from patients’ electronic health records. The primary outcome measure was mechanical failure and implant survivorship using a nationally collected data, complications, re-operations, and “any-cause revision” were also recorded.

There were 72 consecutive patients (72 knees) with minimum 5-year follow-up: 33 (45.8%) females and 39 (54.2%) males with a median age of 70 years (range 47-88). The indication for revision surgery was aseptic loosening (n = 34, 47.2%), instability (n = 17, 23.6%), infection (n = 14, 19.5%) with 10 patients having 2-stage approach and 4 patients with single-stage approach, stiffness (n = 4, 5.6%), and malalignment (n = 3, 4.1%). At mean follow-up of 6.87 years (median 6.7; range 5-11.8), only 2 patients required revision for infection. Using “any-cause implant revision” as an end point, implant survivorship for this construct was 97.2% at median 6.7 years. To date, none of the femoral stems have been revised for mechanical failure.

In rTKA with good femoral condylar bone stock, we have shown excellent survivorship with a short-cemented femoral stem, in conjunction with a mobile-bearing and a tibial sleeve. This has the advantage of reducing the length of the revision construct of this complex surgery.

Level IV.