Contralateral total knee arthroplasty after unilateral surgery in bilateral varus gonathrosis.

ABSTRACT

The authors retrospectively evaluated the rate of contralateral total knee arthroplasty (TKA) in 93 patients who had bilateral varus gonarthrosis and underwent unilateral TKA. Patients were divided into 3 groups according to degree of anatomical varus of the contralateral knee and/or contralateral knee pain at the time of first TKA. Group A, 25 patients, had no pain and within 10-degree deformity. Group B, 48 patients, had pain and within 10-degree deformity. Group C, 20 patients, had pain and more than 10-degree deformity. At a minimum of 2-years follow up after the first TKA, the mean function scores among the groups were significantly different (p < 0.0001). Seventy-five percent of group C, 34% of group B and 0% of group A underwent sequential contralateral TKA, respectively at average 6.7-month interval. Rate of contralateral TKA was high if patients had contralateral knee pain and more than 10 degrees of anatomical varus.