Functional evaluation of patients fitted with total knee prostheses.
Degenerative or inflammatory diseases of the knee joint account for a large proportion of diseases affecting the elderly. Treatment aims to eliminate pain, correct the deformity and maintain complete joint mobility. In cases of total joint degeneration, fitting of a joint prosthesis is the technique currently favoured since elimination of pain and correction of the deformity, accompanied by recovery of joint mobility (the fundamental requirements for normal everyday life) can only be obtained if the knee joint is completely replaced. With the discovery of new materials and increasingly sophisticated knowledge about articular mechanics, the knee prosthesis, although more recent than the hip prosthesis, has become ever more widespread to the point that it now represents an irreplaceable aid in the treatment of this common disease. The clinical results obtained are already stable and particularly encouraging and prosthesis design is sophisticated and accurate. There is, however, still the suspicion that current prostheses can be considered "rudimentary" in comparison with the physiological and biomechanical behaviour of the human joint. We therefore wanted to begin an evaluation using a gait analysis system to assess patients fitted with knee prostheses. The first impressions gained in this study are the subject of this article.
Giannini
S
S
Clinica Ortopedica, Istituto Ortopedico Rizzoli, Bologna.
Gandolfi
M
M
Marcacci
M
M
Catani
F
F
Ceccarelli
F
F
Paladini Molgora
A
A
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D005684:Gait; D006801:Humans; D007719:Knee Joint; D007720:Knee Prosthesis / Q000145:classification / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D008297:Male; D009119:Muscle Contraction; D010003:Osteoarthritis / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D010780:Photogrammetry; D011474:Prosthesis Design; D016059:Range of Motion, Articular; D013997:Time Factors