Representative images before and after knee replacement surgery (IMAGE)
Caption
A patient who underwent total knee arthroplasty maintained a ‘varus’ (outwards) hip-knee-ankle angle, but their joint line angle was changed from apex distal to neutral after surgery. (b) Similarly, this patient retained their ‘neutral’ hip-knee-ankle angle but acquired a neutral joint line angle after surgery. (c) In this case, the patient’s varus and apex distal alignments were both changed to neutral after surgery, which was found in this study to be associated with negative long-term outcomes. (d) While the varus alignment was retained in this patient, their joint line angle after surgery was apex proximal, which means it tilted to the outside of the knee. This was also found to be associated with worse outcomes.
Credit
Toshiki Konishi et al., retrieved from The Bone & Joint Journal <https://doi.org/10.1302/0301-620X.106B10.BJJ-2023-1425.R1>
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CC BY-NC-ND