Abstract:

Objective: Aseptic loosening is one of the most important reasons for failure in unicondylar knee arthroplasty (UKA). The aim of this study was to compare early physiological and pathological radiolucent lines (RLL) between cementless and cemented UKA within a non-designer group cohort. Methods: Two groups of patients who underwent 38 cemented UKA and 47 cementless UKA between 2012 and 2018 were compared retrospectively. In evaluating the clinical results of the patients, the Oxford Knee Score, EQ-5D-3L, EQ-VAS, and KOOS scoring were used. In the evaluation of the presence of RLLs, the tibial and femoral component interfaces were divided into regions and evaluated for RLLs. Results: There was no statistically significant difference between the groups in terms of clinical results (p>0.05). No complete RLLs were observed in either the femoral or tibial component interfaces in any patient. Partial radiolucent regions at the tibial component interface were detected in 32 (11.3%) regions in cemented UKAs and 13 (5.7%) in cementless UKAs. The incidence of partial RLLs in the tibial component interface and the total number of radiolucent zones were higher in the cemented arthroplasties (p=0.040 and p=0.025). Conclusion: It was determined that the excessive physiological RLLs observed in UKA had no effect on the clinical outcomes of the patients. The rate of physiological RLLs was significantly lower in cementless UKA than in cemented UKA.

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