Surgical and Functional Outcomes in Patients Undergoing Total Knee Replacement With Patient-Specific Implants Compared With “Off-the-Shelf” Implants

Abstract

Background: Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) instrumentation and implant designs have been evolving, with one of the current innovations being patient-specific implants (PSIs). Purpose To evaluate whether there is a significant difference in surgical time, intraoperative blood loss, postoperative range of motion, and length of stay between PSI and conventional TKA. Study Design Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods: A consecutive series of 621 TKA patients, 307 with PSIs and 314 with conventional implants, was reviewed. Differences in estimated blood loss, length of stay, range of motion, and surgical time/tourniquet time between the 2 cohorts were analyzed. Results: Linear regression analysis demonstrated that PSI decreased estimated blood loss by 44.72 mL (P < .01), decreased length of stay by 0.39 days (P < .01), decreased postoperative range of motion by 3.90° (P < .01), and had a negligible difference on surgical and tourniquet time. Conclusion: The use of PSI is associated with decreased estimated blood loss, decreased length of stay, decreased range of motion, and no discernible difference in surgical or tourniquet time, all of which are unlikely to be clinically significant.