RESEARCH ARTICLE
One Year After Navigated Total Knee Replacement, No Clinically Relevant Difference Found Between Fixed Bearing and Mobile Bearing Knee Replacement in a Double-Blind Randomized Controlled Trial
Frank Lampe*, Anusch Sufi-Siavach, Karina E Bohlen, Ekkehard Hille, Sebastian P.M Dries
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2011Volume: 5
First Page: 201
Last Page: 208
Publisher ID: TOORTHJ-5-201
DOI: 10.2174/1874325001105010201
Article History:
Received Date: 28/2/2011Revision Received Date: 1/4/2011
Acceptance Date: 11/4/2011
Electronic publication date: 27/5/2011
Collection year: 2011

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
Background:
The mobile bearing designs have not yet been shown to improve clinical outcome of total knee arthroplasty (TKA). In this prospective randomized study, we compared the short-term clinical results of a mobile bearing implant with those of the fixed bearing version of the same implant.
Methods:
We randomized 100 knees into two double-blind groups who received either the fixed (FB, 52 knees) or the mobile bearing (MB, 48 knees) version of the same implant. We used navigation to standardize the surgical technique. For up to one year, we recorded the Knee Society (KSS) and Oxford (OXF) scores. We performed an exploratory analysis of variance (ANOVA) to determine the influence of baseline scores as covariate and the extent of improvement in clinical outcome over time.
Results:
After one year, we did not detect any statistically significant difference between the two groups. The KSS scores differed by 2 points, the OXF scores by 1.1 points.
Conclusion:
Even with identical geometry of implant surfaces and a navigated surgical technique, first-year results do not support a preference for either a fixed or a mobile design.