The effects of patellar resurfacing in total knee arthroplasty on position sense: a prospective randomized study.

ABSTRACT

To find out the improvement of joint position sense after total knee arthroplasty with patellar resurfacing compared to total knee arthoplasty without patellar resurfacing, the study was carried out as a randomised parallel trial in patients who had stage III and IV primary osteoarthrosis of only 1 side of the knee with a 2 year follow-up. Twenty-one patients underwent patellar resurfacing and 26 patients had no patellar resurfacing. Joint position sense was evaluated by the average absolute different angle of the operated knees from the non operated knees which was the asymptomatic knee and acted as the reference knee. Position sense was improved significantly in both groups. However, the patients without patellar resurfacing had better improvement. The patients with patellar resurfacing had better results in terms of anterior knee pain and tenderness. Patellar resurfacing should be used in severe articular cartilage damage, not as a routine operation.