Bi-cruciate retaining total knee arthroplasty is here to stay: A consecutive series transitioning from manual instrumentation to enabling technologies

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Bicruciate-retaining (BCR) total knee arthroplasty (TKA) has seen renewed interest due to the potential for more natural knee kinematics with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) retention.

OBJECTIVE:

The present study attempts to determine differences in the 2-year survivorship and patient-reported outcomes between two surgical strategies (traditional instrumentation versus robotics) applied to the extensive use of a modern, 2^nd generation BCR TKA design.

METHODS:

We performed a retrospective study with prospectively collected data of 113 patients who underwent primary TKA between 2018 and 2020 using a 2^nd generation BCR TKA implant. Patient demographics, PROMS, and intra/post-operative complications were collected. Patients were also evaluated according to the use or not of robotics. A Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to evaluate revision-free survival at follow up.

RESULTS:

102 patients were enrolled: 90 received traditional surgery and 12 robotic-assisted surgery. The mean age was 68 years (SD 7.76) with an average BMI of 29.6 kg/m² (SD 3.56). The mean follow up (FU) was 32.4 $\pm$ 6.2 months (range 24–45 months). Survivorship at 2 years was 98% (95% CI: 92.4–99.5). Revisions/reoperations were performed for anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear (1/4), pain (1/4), arthrofibrosis (1/4) and acute periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) (1/4). At final FU, 92 patients (90.2%) considered themselves satisfied, showing a mean OKS of 40.6 (SD 5.1) and a mean FKS of 76.7 (SD 11.8). No differences in the outcome were found between traditional and robotic-assisted procedures.

CONCLUSION:

The modern BCR design evaluated in this study achieved excellent results in terms of implant survivorship, low rate of reoperation and clinical results, independently from the use of enabling technologies.