Post-Traumatic Arthritis
Post-traumatic arthritis (PTA) can be a painful and debilitating sequela of periarticular knee injuries including any combination of fractures of the tibia, femur, and patella, as well as surrounding soft tissue structures. Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is the treatment of choice when all conservative measures have failed and after an appropriate evaluation for other etiologies including infection. Multiple factors can make the TKA more challenging than a routine primary TKA including deformity, hardware present, bone defects, scars from prior incisions or lacerations, and ligamentous stability. Therefore, it is important to have a surgical plan that may include techniques like hardware removal, technological adjuncts, increased constraint, the use of cones, sleeves, or augments, extensile approaches for challenging exposure, and osteotomies. The outcomes after TKA in PTA patients compared to patients with osteoarthritis involve higher complication rates. However, TKA is still a very beneficial operation in this patient population.
