Research Summary
Incidence of bicompartmental osteoarthritis in patients undergoing total and unicompartmental knee arthroplasty
Heekin, R. D. and Fokin, A. A. (2014) J. Knee Surg. 27(1): 77–82. doi: 10.1055/s-0033-1349401.
Key Findings
%
TRICOMPARTMENTAL MOST COMMON OA PATTERN
of knee arthroplasty patients had osteoarthritis in all three compartments.
%
BICOMPARTMENTAL OA PREVALENCE ESTIMATED
of knee arthroplasty patients had osteoarthritis in two compartments.
%
MINORITY OF PATIENTS WITH UNICOMPARTMENTAL OA
of knee arthroplasty patients had osteoarthritis in one compartment.
Relevance to Spring Loaded Braces
This study is among the few publications that provide a picture of compartmental distribution among knee OA patients. Understanding this distribution is not only of interest for determining the percentage of potential candidates for bicompartmental knee arthroplasty, but also for determining the number of Spring Loaded candidates among knee OA patients.
Spring Loaded bracing, like bicompartmental knee arthroplasty, may be a viable alternative to or an intermediate treatment before more invasive interventions. Most braces on the market for knee OA only address unicompartmental tibiofemoral, leaving many patients with different OA patterns with fewer non-surgical treatment options. As a brace that can substantially reduce load across all three compartments of the knee1– Budarick, A.R. et al. (2020). J. Biomech. Eng. 142(1)
– McGibbon, C.A. et al. 2020. Front. Bioeng. Biotech. doi:10.3389/fbioe.2020.604860, Spring Loaded bracing is a conservative option that may address the many cases of multicompartmental OA among patients who may otherwise have to consider more invasive treatments.