COMPARING THE RESULTS OF TOTAL KNEE ARTHROPLASTY BETWEEN POSTERIOR CRUCIATE LIGAMENT SUBSTITUTION METHOD AND RETENTION METHOD, VISAKHAPATNAM, INDIA: A PROSPECTIVE STUDY.

Abstract

Background: 

During arthroplasty, the cruciate ligament is either removed or kept in place because it is vital to the knee's kinematics. There are conflicting results; in some studies, the preserved cruciate ligament is found to improve bone function, while in other studies, the substituted cruciate ligament is found to improve knee function.

 Method: 

This was a prospective comparative study conducted at the NRI Institute of Medical Sciences, Sangivalasa, Bheemunipatnam from January 2022 to January 2024. In total 40 patients participated in the study. 20 patients underwent cruciate retaining arthroplasty and the other 20 patients underwent cruciate substituting arthroplasty. Postoperatively the knee was examined radiologically, and the pain score, swelling, redness, and difficulty in motion were assessed during follow-up after .2, 4, and 12 weeks.

 Results: 

The clinical outcomes and WOMAC score obtained for the knee of the patients in both groups were compared statistically and the p-value was more than 0.05, indicating that the difference in the values obtained from both groups was not statistically significant (p=0.07).

 Conclusion: 

In this study, it was found that TKA performed by the PCL retaining method and PCL substituting method do not have significant differences in the clinical outcome.

 Recommendation: 

Comparative studies on the TKA by PCL retaining and PCL substituting method should be done with a longer duration of follow-up and a larger sample size of the population. Also, the study of TKA for different pathological conditions should be considered.