Modifications of femoral component design in multi-radius total knee arthroplasty lead to higher lateral posterior femoro-tibial translation.

PURPOSE: As the aims of changes in total knee arthroplasty (TKA) designs are to reinstate more natural kinematics, the current study evaluated the in vivo kinematics in patients who underwent a cruciate retaining gradually changing femoral radius ("G-CURVE") against a cruciate retaining conventional changing femoral radius ("J-CURVE") geometry TKA design. The hypothesis of the study is that the G-CURVE design would allow a substantial increase in the femoral rollback compared to the J-CURVE design.

METHODS: Retrospective study design. Thirty patients were included (G-CURVE, n = 20; J-CURVE, n = 10). Single-plane fluoroscopic analysis and marker-based motion capture gait analysis was performed to analyse dynamic tibiofemoral motion during weight-bearing and unloaded activities at 24 month after index surgery.

RESULTS: The analysis of the medial and lateral points on the tibia plateau during the unloaded flexion-extension and the weight-bearing lunge activities revealed a significant difference in femoral rollback in G-CURVE TKA above 60° (p = 0.001) and 30° (p = 0.02) of knee flexion, respectively. Moreover, the lateral condyle of the G-CURVE showed a higher extent of femoral rollback while the lateral condyle of the J-CURVE rolled forward.

CONCLUSION: At 2 years post-operative, the G-CURVE TKA showed significant differences in femoro-tibial translation in comparison with the J-CURVE system, in vivo. The G-CURVE resulted in an increased lateral rollback and simultaneously in an elimination of the paradoxical medial roll-forward present in the J-CURVE design. Moreover, knee kinematics analysis showed significant differences between unloaded and weight-bearing conditions revealing the impact of load and muscle force. The analysis conducted in this study contributes to further understand the principal movement characteristics in widely used older designs in comparison with recently developed concepts to get a better overview on their potential benefits on in vivo kinematics.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: III.