Soft-tissue tension total knee arthroplasty.
It is far from clear how best to define the proper strength of soft-tissue tensioning in total knee arthroplasty (TKA). We attached a torque driver to the Monogram balancer/tensor device and measured soft-tissue tension in full extension and 90 degrees flexion during TKA. In our surgical procedure, when we felt proper soft-tissue tension was being applied, the mean distraction force was noted to be 126N in extension and 121N in flexion. There was no significant correlation between soft-tissue tension and the postoperative flexion angle finally achieved. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to assess the actual distraction forces in relation to soft-tissue tension in TKA. Further study may reveal the most appropriate forces to achieve proper soft-tissue tension in the wide variety of circumstances presenting at knee arthroplasty.
Kawaguchi Kohgyo General Hospital, Nagano, Japan.
Hiroshi
H
Asano
Akiho
A
Hoshino
Tim J
TJ
Wilton
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001168:Arthritis / Q000601:surgery; D019645:Arthroplasty, Replacement, Knee / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013525:Surgical Instruments; D019415:Torque; D016896:Treatment Outcome