Preoperative flexion : does it influence postoperative flexion after posterior-cruciate-retaining total knee arthroplasty ?

This study analyzed data from 313 posterior-cruciate-sparing total knee replacements to determine the influence of preoperative flexion on postoperative flexion. The patients with limited flexion preoperatively demonstrated an improvement in flexion postoperatively. By contrast, patients with more than 105 degrees of flexion preoperatively demonstrated a decrease in flexion postoperatively. The study indicated a migration towards the mean range of motion. These findings were true for the total pool of patients and for each subgroup of patients based on diagnosis, cement status of the tibia, and implant type. The data suggests that flexion does not change beyond the first postoperative year.