Cementless versus cemented unicompartmental knee arthroplasty: a systematic review of comparative studies

There are still some controversies regarding the clinical use of cementless UKAs. The aim of this systematic review was to determine whether cementless medial UKA leads to similar outcomes compared to cemented medial UKA. This search was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews guidelines (PRISMA). The random effects model with 95% confidence interval (CI) was applied to the analysis. The I2 statistic was used to assess study heterogeneity. Six studies were eligible for inclusion (4784 UKAs, 4776 patients): 2947 cemented UKAs (61.6%) and 1837 cementless UKAs (38.4%). The overall mean follow-up was 4.9 years. The all-cause reoperation rate was 11.3% (80 of 706) at mean 5.7-year follow-up for cemented UKA and 6.9% (57 of 824) at mean 4.1-year follow-up for the cementless. The overall revision rate was 10.2% (303 of 2947) for the cemented and 5.8% (108 of 1837) for the cementless. Aseptic loosening was the most frequent reason of revision (2.3% cemented vs 0.5% cementless). The overall rate of radiolucent lines (RLL) was 28.3% (63 of 223) in the cemented cohort and 11.1% in the cementless (26 of 234). All the studies reported improved functional outcomes. Cementless UKA provides at least equivalent if not better results compared to cemented UKA. Despite the use of cemented UKA outnumber cementless fixation, available data shows that cementless UKA had a reduced midterm revision rate, while providing similar functional outcomes.

One-year follow-up data from the German Cartilage Registry (KnorpelRegister DGOU) in the treatment of chondral and osteochondral defects of the talus

INTRODUCTION

Chondral and osteochondral lesions of the talus (OLTs) remain a challenging issue with numerous operative treatments proposed to date. The aim of this study was to evaluate 1-year follow-up data in the German Cartilage Registry (KnorpelRegister DGOU).

METHODS

Among 401 patients in the database, 114 patients with a complete 1-year Foot and Ankle Outcome (FAOS) score for subscale Pain as the primary variable were included. A total of 12 different surgical treatments were performed. However, 8 techniques were carried out in negligible numbers of patients (n = 1-3), leaving 89 patients treated with the following techniques: arthroscopic antegrade bone marrow stimulation (group A; n = 32), autologous chondrocyte implantation with autologous cancellous bone grafting (group B; n = 9), matrix-augmented bone marrow stimulation (group C; n = 22), and matrix-augmented bone marrow stimulation with autologous cancellous bone grafting (group D; n = 26). Group differences and possible influencing variables such as age and sex were evaluated. Level of significance was set at p < 0.05 for all statistical tests.

RESULTS

All four treatment groups showed significant improvement of the FAOS scores at 1 year postoperatively compared with their preoperative scores. No significant differences were found with respect to score changes among the groups. A positive correlation between FAOS subscale Pain improvement and defect size volume and negative correlations between increasing age and FAOS subscales Sports/Rec and QoL were found. Concomitant ankle stabilization led to greater improvement in FAOS subscales Symptoms and ADL than in patients with no stabilization. FAOS subscale Pain showed greater improvement in women than in men.

CONCLUSION

All analyzed treatment options were effective for treatment of OLTs. In particular, large defects appeared to benefit from treatment. In the presence of concomitant ankle instability, a stabilizing procedure appeared to have a positive impact on the outcome.

Stemless reverse total shoulder arthroplasty: a systematic review of contemporary literature

PURPOSE

Reverse shoulder prostheses are increasingly used for treatment of rotator cuff tear arthropathy and other degenerative shoulder diseases. In recent years, aiming for bone stock preservation has led to the design of metaphyseal humeral components without a stem. The aims of this study were to evaluate the complication and reintervention rates, as well as the clinical and radiographic outcomes in patients who underwent reverse shoulder arthroplasty (RSA) with stemless implants.

METHODS

A systematic review of the literature was completed until May 2020 using PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL and Cochrane databases, according to PRISMA guidelines.

RESULTS

The literature search revealed 2942 studies, of which 13 were included in this review, with a total of 517 patients and a mean follow-up between 6.4 and 101.6 months. The total complication rate was 6.5%, while 3.3% were humeral associated complications. Finally, the rate of shoulders that underwent a reintervention was 6.7%, with 1.4% relating to a humeral component reason. Stemless RSA led to substantial improvements in patient reported outcome measures and range of motion across all studies. Scapular notching was reported in 15.2%, and lucencies around humeral component were reported in 0.8% of shoulders.

CONCLUSION

Stemless RSA resulted in low complication and reintervention rates at the mid-term follow-up. The reported clinical and radiological outcomes showed that these prostheses have at least equivalent outcomes with their stemmed counterparts. Further studies are required to investigate the long-term longevity and performance of the stemless humeral implants.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

Level IV; Systematic Review.

Total shoulder arthroplasty with hybrid fixation of glenoid components consisting of cementless porous metal pegs or cage along with cemented backside polyethylene surface: a systematic review

Recently, hybrid glenoid components have been developed, consisting of cementless highly porous metal central peg, monoblock keel or cage along with cemented backside polyethylene surface. The aims of this study were twofold: (1) to determine the revision and complication rates of hybrid glenoid components, consisting of porous metal pegs or coatings attached to the polyethylene, for aseptic loosening in TSA and (2) to evaluate the rate of radiolucent lines in patients who underwent TSA with hybrid glenoid components consisting of porous metal pegs or coatings attached to the polyethylene. The US National Library of Medicine (PubMed/MEDLINE), EMBASE and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews were queried for publications utilizing the following keywords: "hybrid" OR "bone-ingrowth" OR "bone ingrowth" AND "TSA" OR "total" AND "shoulder" AND "arthroplasty" OR "replacement". Five articles were included for analysis (470 operated shoulders, mean follow-up: 47.5 months). The overall weighted mean modified methodology Coleman score was 51.2/100, indicating a moderate level of overall methodological quality. The survival rate of hybrid glenoid components was 97.4% (458 out of 470 cases), while the rate of glenoid-related complications was 2.8% (13 cases). Finally, there were 54 cases (out of 313 reported; 17.3%) with glenoid radiolucency (none of them required revision). TSA with hybrid fixation glenoid components was associated with high survivorship and low rate of glenoid component-related complications at 4 years mean follow-up. In addition, there was limited evidence to show that the short- to mid-term outcome of TSA using hybrid glenoid components is not inferior to the outcome of cemented all-polyethylene glenoid components.

Arthroscopic anatomic complete versus non-anatomic repair of massive rotator cuff tears: a systematic review of comparative trials

Several clinical studies have compared the clinical and functional outcomes of arthroscopic anatomic complete repair and arthroscopic partial repair for massive rotator cuff tears (MRCTs). To our knowledge, no systematic review of these comparative trials has been published yet. A systematic analysis was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) using the MEDLINE/PubMed database and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Six studies were eligible for analysis, and they were level III case-control studies. There were 223 cases of complete repair and 208 cases of partial repair (mean age range 59-67 years, mean follow-up range 24-45 months). All studies reported significant postoperative improvement in the reported subjective scores and range of motion in both groups. Complete repair was associated with at least equal or better functional outcomes compared to the partial repair. The rate of complications requiring reoperation in the complete and partial repair cohorts was 1.3% and 3.4%, respectively. Although the overall rate of radiographic integrity of the complete and partial repair cohorts was 61.1% and 26.7%, respectively, we found no clinical relevance in this finding. There is moderate-to-good quality evidence to support that both arthroscopic complete and partial repairs of MRCTs are associated with satisfactory functional outcomes and low rate of complications requiring reoperation. Complete repair is associated with at least equal or better functional outcomes compared to the partial repair and, therefore, it should remain the first line of treatment.