Patellar Resurfacing as a Prognostic Factor in Total Knee Arthroplasty: 20-Year Cohort Study

Background The decision to perform patellar resurfacing (PR) during total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is based on patient and implant characteristics. This study aims to evaluate PR as a prognostic factor for revision in primary TKA with 20 years of follow-up experience. Methods This is a retrospective, comparative, observational cohort study of patients who underwent TKA at a high-specialty hospital in Mexico between 2000 and 2020. A total of 334 patients who underwent TKA were evaluated. For our TKA population we divided in two groups of interest: those with patellar PR and without patellar resurfacing (WPR). Functionality was evaluated using the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) and Oxford Knee Score (OKS) scales. Pain was evaluated using the numeric rating scale (NRS). We determined the survival of TKA using the Kaplan-Meier method, and to evaluate prognostic variables, we used measures of association, such as the odds ratio (OR) and risk ratio (RR), along with the hazard ratio test (HR), with a 95% confidence interval (IC). A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results TKA with PR was associated with improved clinical and functional outcomes. There were fewer reported complications and fewer cases of prosthetic failure or revision surgery in patients receiving PR. Trial registration Not applicable, this study is an observational retrospective cohort no prospective registration was required.