Comparative gait analysis of patients with different design of total knee arthroplasty

Introduction/Objective The essence of the treatment of degenerative knee joint diseases is pain relief, restoring motion range and stability of knee joints. Methods In this study, 35 patients participated after having surgery of the knee joint. The patients had a posterior-stabilized (PS) endoprosthesis in one joint, and a posterior cruciate ligament retaining (CR) endoprosthesis in the other. Kinematic data was collected using a 3D optical system for tracking fluorescent markers in time. Based on these data, the following parameters were determined: degree of flexion, mediolateral (ML) translation, lateral gap, medial gap, and the angle of change between the transtibial and transfemoral axes. Results The results show a more pronounced flexion degree with the PS prosthesis compared to the CR prosthesis. Also, the results show negligible values of the ML translation, lateral gap, and medial gap in both types of prostheses. Using the non-parameter Wilcoxon test, a substantial difference in the angle change between the transtibial and transfemoral axes was confirmed, that is, in the flexion angles on the CR and PS prostheses. Conclusion This study shows that there is no great difference in the use of the PS or CR designs of endoprostheses. Better behavior and range of motion in the knee joint were established with the implantation of the PS endoprosthesis. This conclusion is confirmed by the substantial difference in the degree of flexion of the knee joint and in the position of the transversal axes of the tibia and femur.