Collateral Ligament Tension Guided Medial Unicompartmental Knee Revision to a Kinematically Aligned Total Knee Arthroplasty

Source: PubMed Central Open Access, NCBI / U.S. National Library of Medicine

This study presents a novel approach to revising failed medial unicompartmental knee arthroplasty into kinematically aligned total knee arthroplasty using an augmented reality (AR) system (NextAR by Medacta International). Traditional methods involve mechanically aligned total knee arthroplasty (TKA), which can be complex and often requires additional components like stems and augments. The proposed technique builds on the caliper-based manual method by integrating AR-based navigation to enhance precision during surgery, particularly in maintaining the patient’s native joint line and soft tissue behavior. The procedure includes preoperative three-dimensional planning and intraoperative adjustments based on real-time data on collateral ligament elongation. This AR-assisted technique aims to reduce the technical challenges associated with unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) revisions, offering potential benefits for alignment accuracy and soft-tissue management.