Oxford phase 3 unicondylar knee arthroplasty through a minimally invasive approach: long-term results.

PURPOSE: Surgical treatment options for medial compartment osteoarthritis of the knee include high tibial osteotomy, total knee arthroplasty or unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA), depending on the patient's age, level of physical activity and the degree of deformity.

METHODS: In this study, we evaluated the long-term results of patients who underwent the Oxford cemented meniscal-bearing unicondylar knee prosthesis through a minimally invasive approach including a clinical, functional and radiographic assessment.

RESULTS: Favourable clinical and radiological outcomes were registered overall at ten years after surgery. Overall results of UKA according to the American Knee Society (AKS) using Insall's criteria showed an excellent or good outcome for 492 knees (96.28 %), fair for 11 (2.15 %) and poor for eight (1.57 %) in the post-operative long term.

CONCLUSIONS: We believe that with appropriate surgical technique, patient selection, prosthetic design and specific training, surgeons should achieve good outcomes with the added advantages of a minimally invasive approach. High volume for this technique is important in our opinion.