title: Clinical Outcomes in Men and Women following Total Knee Arthroplasty with a High-Flex Knee: No Clinical Effect of Gender.
abstract: While it is generally recognized that anatomical differences exist between the male and female knee, the literature generally refutes the clinical need for gender-specific total knee prostheses. It has been found that standard, unisex knees perform as well, or better, in women than men. Recently, high-flex knees have become available that mechanically accommodate increased flexion yet no studies have directly compared the outcomes of these devices in men and women to see if gender-based differences exist. We retrospectively compared the performance of the high-flex Vanguard knee (Biomet, Warsaw, IN) in 716 male and 1,069 female knees. Kaplan-Meier survivorship was 98.5% at 5.6-5.7 years for both genders. After 2 years, mean improvements in Knee Society Knee and Function scores for men and women (50.9 versus 46.3; 26.5 versus 23.1) and corresponding SF-12 Mental and Physical scores (0.2 versus 2.2; 13.7 versus 12.2) were similar with differences not clinically relevant. Postoperative motion gains as a function of preoperative motion level were virtually identical in men and women. This further confirms the suitability of unisex total knee prostheses for both men and women.
authors.affiliation: Physicians' Clinic of Iowa, 202 10th Street Southeast, No. 140, Cedar Rapids, IA 52403, USA.
authors.forename: Jeffrey M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Nassif
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioengineering, University of Illinois at Chicago, 851 S. Morgan Street, Chicago, IL 60607, USA.
authors.forename: William S
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Pietrzak
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D019645:Arthroplasty, Replacement, Knee / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D004867:Equipment Design; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007719:Knee Joint / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D007720:Knee Prosthesis / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020370:Osteoarthritis, Knee / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology / Q000601:surgery*; D011184:Postoperative Period; D016059:Range of Motion, Articular / Q000502:physiology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D012737:Sex Factors; D016019:Survival Analysis; D016896:Treatment Outcome