Standardized Unilateral Knee Arthroplasty

Surgery was performed by one author with long experience in UKA in a highly standardised fashion. The implants were fixed-bearing medial PPK (Zimmer Biomet, Warsaw, Indiana, USA) and fixed-bearing lateral ZUK (Lima Corporate, Udine, Italy). All patients were placed in a supine position on a standard operating table under spinal anaesthesia. A standard medial or lateral parapatellar approach was used. Inspection of the patellofemoral and medial compartments was performed. All components were cemented using Refobacin Bone Cement R (Zimmer Biomet, Warsaw, Indiana, USA). An intraarticular drain was placed and removed on the first postoperative day. Enoxaparin sodium 4000 units subcutaneously daily for 45 days was used as thromboembolic prophylaxis.
The postoperative protocol was conducted following a previous report [36 (link)]. Briefly, both the patient groups followed the same rehabilitation protocol involving passive mobilisation from day one after the surgery. From day two, they started an active progressive mobilisation of the joint and assisted walking with two crutches. According to each patient’s capability, a gradual increase in the load during walking was recommended, continuing with isometric muscle toning exercises until the total abandonment of walking aids.