No Difference in 90-Day Complications Between Bilateral Unicompartmental and Total Knee Arthroplasty

This study compares the 90-day complication rate of 28 patients who underwent simultaneous bilateral unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) with a matched control group of 56 patients who underwent simultaneous total knee arthroplasty (TKA.) We matched the groups 2:1 for age, gender, and American Society of Anesthesiologists scores and reviewed their medical records to identify complications, reoperations, and hospital readmission during the first 90 days after surgery as well as the operative times and length of hospital stay.

The bilateral UKA group had shorter operative times (P = 0.06) and shorter length of hospital stay (P < 0.001). Ninety-day complications in the UKA group included 1 wound infection and 1 deep vein thrombosis (3.57%). The TKA group had 2 complications including 1 superficial wound infection and 1 pulmonary embolism (1.79%) (P = 0.60). One knee in each group required irrigation and debridement for wound infection. These patients requiring additional surgery for wound infection were the only 2 patients that required readmission within 90 days. Despite being a less invasive procedure, we found that the bilateral UKA group had a similar risk of complications to a matched group of bilateral TKA patients.