Analysis of total knee replacements in a South Indian Institute

Background: Total knee replacement (TKR) is the most widely practised elective surgical procedure for advanced osteoarthritic patients globally. There is paucity of data on TKR’s in south Indian population. This study was aimed at analysing the peri-operative data of primary TKR’s to ease in customising the imported implants for our population.Methods: Data on 261 TKR’s performed in our institute over 40 months was collected. Categorical variables like age, gender, size of components used, co-morbidities and type of implants used were analysed.Results: Out of 220 patients with 261 knees, 141 were females (173 knees) and 79 were males (88 knees). The age group of the cohort was 60±11.2 years (Mean±SD). Diabetes and Hypertension (n=152) were the commonest co morbidities. The Cruciate Retaining (CR) type of prosthesis was used to the maximum extent (n=218). Size 3 femoral and tibial component was the commonly used in males and size 2 in females. 143(54.8%) knees had tibio-femoral component mismatch. Conclusions: This study gives a reasonable insight into various aspects of the total knee replacements in a South Indian Institute. This data would be useful for manufacturing suitable implants customised for our population in the context of imported implants being in vogue. It also helps the operating surgeon to appropriately order for the desirable implants well in advance lest he should struggle intra operatively for want of better clinical outcome