The patella in total knee arthroplasty: resurfacing or nonresurfacing of patella

Data from the Swedish Knee Arthroplasty Registry were analyzed to compare b i- and tricompartmental knee arthroplasties carried out in patients operate d on for arthrosis in 1990-996. Of the 16,607 primary arthroplasties that w ere carried out there were 5,139 with patellar replacement in the primary p rocedure and 10,928 without. By April 1998, 280 revisions were performed, 2 50 of these cases were analyzed in this study. Patella-related complication s were commonly the reason for early revision: in 99 of the 168 knees with a primary bicompartmental procedure and in 36 of the 82 knees with a primar y tricompartmental procedure This presentation merely analyzes the extent o f patellar problems in knee arthroplasty, as a detailed analysis of the cau ses of this common problem is not possible using data from a national multi center study.