The Effect of Electrocautery around the Patellar Rim in Patellar Non-Resurfacing Total Knee Arthroplasty.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical effect of electrocautery on the reduction of pain in patellar non-resurfacing bilateral total knee arthroplasty.


METHODS
A total of 50 patients were enrolled into this study; all patients had undergone bilateral patellar non-resurfacing total knee arthoplasty at our hospital, between January 2007 to December 2008. The minimum follow-up period was 1 year. The electrocautery of the patellar rim was performed randomly on one side only. The clinical results were evaluated between the electrocautery group and the non-electrocautery group based on measures of anterior knee pain, range of motion, American Knee Society clinical rating score, Feller knee score, Western Ontario and McMaster Universities score, and radiographic analysis.


RESULTS
There were statistically significant differences between preoperative and postoperative status for all parameters. There were no statistically significant differences noted between the electrocautery group and the non electrocautery group for all parameters.


CONCLUSIONS
Electrocautery of patellar rim is thought to be less effective in reducing anterior knee pain.
Department of Orthopedic, Soonchunhyang University Bucheon Hospital, Soonchunhyang University College of Medicine, Buchon, Korea.
Soo Jae
SJ
Yim
Mun Suk
MS
Jang
Wook Joong
WJ
Kim
Sang Hyok
SH
Lee
Hee Kyung
HK
Kang