1.Knee Joint Distraction for Bicompartmental Knee Osteoarthritis in Asian Patients
Lim WSR ; Soong J ; Koh DTS ; Bin-Abd-Razak HR ; Lee KH
Malaysian Orthopaedic Journal 2025;19(No. 3):35-41
Introduction: Young active patients with significant pain
from knee osteoarthritis are a challenging group of patients
to treat. For patients with symptomatic osteoarthritis
involving both medial and lateral compartments, total knee
arthroplasty (TKA) would traditionally be their only surgical
option. Knee joint distraction (KJD) is a novel procedure in
Asia that offers a joint preserving alternative for this cohort
of patients. This study aims to evaluate patients with knee
osteoarthritis treated with knee joint distraction (KJD).
Materials and methods: Patients were included in this
study if they had medial and lateral knee pain refractory to
conservative treatment for more than 6 months, aged less
than 50 and radiographs confirmed osteoarthritic changes in
both the medial and lateral tibio-femoral compartments. An
external fixator was placed in the distal femur and proximal
tibia, and the knee joint was progressively distracted over a
period of 3 days, to a total distance of 5mm. After six weeks,
the external fixator is removed. Manipulation under
anaesthesia was performed for patients who experienced
stiffness post external fixator removal to achieved desired
range of motion.
Results: A total of three patients underwent KJD from 2020
to 2021. The patients’ age ranged from 44 to 49 years. The
mean pre-operative Oxford Knee Score (OKS) was 37.6. At
final follow-up at 2 years, the mean post-operative OKS was
17.6. All patients managed to attain the minimal clinically
important difference in the OKS.
Conclusion: In young patients with symptomatic
bicompartmental knee osteoarthritis, KJD can be considered
before doing a total knee replacement.


Result Analysis
Print
Save
E-mail