| ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION OF POSTERIOR STABILIZED KNEE REPLACEMENT SYSTEMS |
MICHAEL
J. PAPPAS, Ph.D,*, JEAN-LOUIS BRIARD M.D.**
ABSTRACT
Posterior
stabilized (PS) knee designs are among the most popular type
of knee replacement systems. The success of such designs has
been accompanied by problems such as excessive wear and fracture
of stabilizing posts, problems with the patella, bone loss
with resulting fractures and component tissue entrapment.
Long-term clinical experience with a conforming device has
shown a very low incidence of posterior subluxation. Thus,
a question arises as to where the use of a PS knee replacement
is justified in light of the problems associated with them.
To help answer this question seven typical PS designs are
analyzed and evaluated for their performance characteristics.
It is concluded that the use of PS designs is not appropriate
for cases where there are viable collateral ligaments since
current, congruent, mobile bearing designs provide adequate
stability.
* Department of Mechanical Engineering, New
Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ
** Clinique du cedre, Rouen, France.
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