Background
Although the long-term results of knee arthroplasty have proven to be excellent, the rehabilitation period often is long and painful. To improve the patient's well-being during the immediate postoperative period, other less traumatic exposures have been introduced, including the mini-subvastus approach. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the shortterm functional results of minimal invasive subvastal-total knee arthroplasty (MIS-TKA) (minisubvastus approach) compared with a traditional total knee arthroplasty (TKA) using a medial parapatellar exposure.
Patients and methods
The study population was divided into two groups of patients who underwent surgery with the same surgeons during 2010–2011: 16 MIS-TKA and 18 medial parapatellar total knee arthroplasty, following the same arthroplasty model (Nexgen) and similar preoperative and postoperative procedures.
Results
In the immediate postoperative results, the subvastus group showed significant decrease in blood loss, significant decrease in hospital stay, significantly shorter length of incision, and significant increase in duration of surgery. After 1-year follow-up, Knee Society Scores were 173.2 ± 7.0 for the minimal invasive subvastal group and 173.4 ± 5.9 for the standard technique group. This difference was not statistically significant.
Conclusion
Our study allows us to assert that the minimal invasive subvastal technique does offer some advantages for the immediate postoperative period, including a lesser blood loss and a shorter hospital stay. However, results at 1 year after surgery are similar, both in functional assessment and in the quality of life for the patient.