A team of Australian researchers has completed a 10-year follow-up study of Smith & Nephew’s Journey-Deuce knee prosthesis.
Their work, “Journey‐Deuce bicompartmental knee arthroplasty with the addition of computer navigation achieves good clinical outcomes and implant survival at 10 years,” appears in the May 11, 2021, edition of Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy.
The researchers looked at 41 patients who underwent 51 bicompartmental knee arthroplasties with the Journey-Deuce knee prosthesis between November 2006 and November 2009. Each patient had symptomatic medial and patellofemoral compartment osteoarthritis, with intact cruciate ligaments and a preserved lateral compartment.
The team assessed each patient using the Oxford Knee Score, the EuroQol Group 5-Dimension self-reported questionnaire and maximal active range of motion (ROM) at several times before and after surgery, specifically; before surgery and at 1, 2, 5 and 10-years post-surgery.
In the final assessment, the research team was able to follow 30 of the 41 patients (37 knees) for an average of 11.4 years. Eight patients from the original cohort (representing ten knees) had died and three could not be contacted at final review. The authors reported no major component revision.
The investigators found that clinical scores improved across the board. The preoperative Oxford Knee Score was 25.4 and had improved to 43.5 at 10 years. Preoperative knee flexion was 116.4° and improved to 127.3° at 10 years. The EQ-5D score was 70.5 before surgery and was 77.4 at 10 years.
Co-author Randeep S. Aujla, MBChB ChM FRCS, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at South Metropolitan Health in Perth, Australia, summarized the team’s results to OTW, “Our results were superior to what was expected. These patients were prospectively recruited as part of a study and long-term results had not been evaluated. There were no major revision procedures at 10-year follow-up.”
“Bicompartmental knee replacements may provide an option to add to the arthroplasty spectrum in the future. Our study suggests that the addition of computer navigation and avoidance of minimally invasive techniques can yield superior results when compared to previous reports using the Journey-Deuce implant.”
