Convened under the auspicious of esteemed endorsers - ISTA

Poster: 4Testing High Performance After Knee Arthroplasty: A New ObjectiveFunctional Score*Andrea Baldini - . - Prato, ItalyLuca Manfredini - IFCA Clinic - Florence, ItalyPierpaolo Ceruli Mariani - Ospedale Civile Misericordia E. Dolce - Prato, ItalyAlessandro Pisaneschi - Villanova Clinic - Florence, Italy*Email: drbaldiniandrea@yahoo.itFunctional recovery assessment after total knee arthroplasty requires specific evaluation tools. The objective of ourstudy was to develop and validate a new objective functional scoring system which detect the ability of the patients toperform high activity level tasks. A secondary objective was to assess the activity level of patients with a total andunicompartmental knee arthroplasty compared to their peers.Four matched groups of fifty patients each, below 65 years old, were recruited. One group were normal patients, onewere patients with an osteoarthritic knee, one group were patients who underwent unicompartmental knee arthroplasty,and one group were patients who underwent posterior-stabilized total knee arthroplasty. All arthroplasty patients hadthe following inclusion criteria: Charnley category A, 18 months minimum follow-up, and excellent score at the KneeSociety score. Examinations were performed by two blinded examiners. Outcome measures include the Knee SocietyScoring System, the Knee Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS), and the new Knee Performance Score. The new scorewas developed to be administered in few minutes in every medical office setting, and without special instruments. Itincluded simple tasks which explore the knee strength, flexibility, agility, and propioception.Patients with a well functioning posterior-stabilized total knee arthroplasty performed similarly to their healthy peersand to those patients with a unicompartmental arthroplasty. For few propioceptive and agility tasks the healthy groupand the unicompartmental one performed statistically better then the total knee group. Patients with a replaced ornormal knee who rated higher in the strength tasks had a higher overall performance score. The new score showedhigh intra and interobserver reliability. Distribution of data did not show ceiling effect within excellent results.The study has contributed further evidence to understand the level of functional recovery after knee arthroplasty.Subtle differences between different arthroplasty designs and patients categories may be evidenced using a moresensitive functional scoring system.file:///E|/ISTA2010-Abstracts.htm[12/7/2011 3:15:47 PM]