title: Reduced failure rate in knee prosthetic surgery with improved implantation technique.
abstract: From the Swedish Knee Arthroplasty project, started in 1975, types of relatively unmodified knee prostheses were chosen for analysis of time-dependent changes in the failure rate. One thousand nine hundred sixty-nine Marmor unicompartmental and 376 Total Condylar arthroplasties, all cemented, were followed until the end of 1989. The cumulative revision rates calculated with survival statistics showed a continuous improvement with time. The five-year revision rate was reduced from 11% to 5% for the Marmor prosthesis and from 10% to 2% for the Total Condylar prosthesis. This indicates that factors other than improved design are important. Such factors could include improved guide instruments, better surgical and cementing technique, influence of a learning curve, and patient selection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedics, Lund University Hospital, Sweden.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lewold
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Knutson
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lidgren
mesh_terms: D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007720:Knee Prosthesis / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011475:Prosthesis Failure; D012086:Reoperation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013548:Sweden