The press-fit condylar modular total knee system. Four-to-six-year results with a posterior-cruciate-substituting design.

One hundred and eighteen patients who had had 150 consecutive primary total knee replacements (sixteen bilateral procedures) between February 1988 and February 1990, with insertion of the press-fit condylar modular total knee system with cement, were enrolled in a prospective study. Ninety-six patients (125 knees) were followed for an adequate interval (mean, 4.8 years; range, 3.8 to 6.2 years). Thirteen patients (fifteen knees) died, and nine patients (ten knees) were lost to follow-up. The mean age of the patients at the time of the index arthroplasty was seventy years (range, twenty-nine to eighty-five years). The patients were evaluated clinically and radiographically, according to the scoring system of the Knee Society, and the results on a self-administered questionnaire were used to evaluate pain, function, satisfaction, and patellofemoral symptoms. A Kaplan-Meier survivorship analysis was performed with a revision operation as the end point. The mean functional and clinical scores, according to the system of the Knee Society, were 78 and 93 points, respectively, at the most recent follow-up examination. The result was excellent for 103 knees, good for thirteen, fair for three, and poor for six. Three revision operations were necessary: two because of infection and one because of instability. The over-all rate of patellofemoral symptoms was 8 per cent (ten knees). Three knees had tibiofemoral instability; subsequent modification of the design of the tibial cam decreased the prevalence of this problem. Non-progressive radiolucent lines were present at the cement-bone interface in 39 per cent (thirty-nine) of the ninety-nine knees that had complete radiographic follow-up. No prosthesis had loosened by the time of the most recent follow-up examination. The rate of survival of the implant was 97 per cent at six years, and the standard error of the mean was 1.6 per cent. In the present series, total knee arthroplasties with the press-fit condylar modular knee system resulted in excellent relief of pain, an excellent range of motion, and restoration of function. They were also associated with a low prevalence of patellofemoral problems.