Mobile bearing vs fixed bearing total knee arthroplasty-shortterm outcome and postoperative recovery analysis

Abstract

Background: Controversy exists regarding the clinical and functional outcome of mobile bearing compared to fixed bearing total knee prostheses. Even though lot of studies have compared the long term results, few have studied the early postoperative recovery, short term functional outcome and clinical outcome in terms of range of motion Objective: The purpose of this prospective clinical study was to compare the postoperative recovery, short term functional outcome and short term clinical outcome in terms of range of motion of 2 groups of patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty. Method: 25 patients who received a fixed bearing prosthesis (posterior stabilised PS) was compared with 25 patients who received a mobile bearing prosthesis (rotating platform RP). They were followed up at regular intervals using Knee society clinical and functional scoring system Results: At an average follow-up of 12 months, there was significant postoperative improvement in both groups; but there was no significant difference between the groups with regard to the mean postoperative range of motion (92.56 in PS and 99.16 in RP respectively; p=0.239), the mean KSS clinical score (84.76 in PS and 83.4 in RP respectively; p=0.542), or the mean KSS functional score (70.6 in PS and 75.2 in RP respectively; p=0.263). Using a fixed-bearing or a mobile-bearing design did not seem to grossly influence the short-term recovery and early results after knee arthroplasty.