Unicompartmental Arthroplasty with the Oxford Knee. Buy the book here.
This chapter is available from Goodfellow Publishers as a PDF.
Introduction
This chapter is intended to be read in parallel with the description of the operative technique (Chapter 7). That chapter is concerned with ‘how’ to do the operation; this chapter provides the rationale —‘why’ the various steps of the procedure are necessary. It may help also to watch the videos of the operation which can be found at www.oxfordpartialknee.com.
Although the surgeon operates exclusively on the bones, carefully avoiding any interference with the ligaments, the operation is essentially about ‘soft tissue balance’. The aim is to implant the prosthetic surfaces so that the ligaments are at their resting tensions throughout the range of passive movement. This should restore both normal alignment, normal mobility and normal stability.
In what follows, we will often refer to the ‘gap’ between the medial femoral and tibial condyles, meaning the space between them created by distraction of their surfaces. With the muscles relaxed, the width of this gap can be used as a measure of the lengths of the ligaments spanning it.
