Unicompartmental and bicompartmental arthroplasty of the knee with a finned metal tibial-plateau implant.

We followed a series of ten patients (ten knees) who had a unicompartmental and twenty patients (twenty-two knees) who had a bicompartmental arthroplasty of the knee, in which a finned metal tibial-plateau implant had been used, for two to fourteen years (average, five years) postoperatively. According to the modified criteria of MacIntosh and Hunter, thirty knees (94 per cent) had a good result and two (6 per cent), a fair result. There were two complications: one intraoperative and one postoperative fracture of the tibial plateau. One patient with rheumatoid arthritis required a revision to a total knee arthroplasty at six months because of rapid progression of disease in the contralateral, untreated compartment. Our results suggest that with the proper indications this arthroplasty has a place in reconstructive surgery of the arthritic knee joint.