Compartment syndrome and popliteal vascular injury complicating unicompartmental knee arthroplasty

Popliteal vascular injury and the compartment syndrome of the leg are rare but important complications of knee arthroplasties. Early diagnosis and treatment are of paramount importance in preventing the devastating complications of these conditions. To our knowledge, these complications have not been reported previously after unicompartmental knee arthroplasty in the literature. Low level of suspicion may delay the diagnosis, as popliteal vascular injury and compartment syndrome are not well recognized as possible complications of unicompartmental knee arthroplasty

Unicompartmental knee arthroplasty

This thesis concerns technical aspects of unicompartmental knee arthroplasty. Recent years have witnessed a resurgence of interest in unicompartmental arthroplasty, particularly with the introduction of the minimally invasive technique. In the light of the excellent long-term results of the total knee prosthesis, critical evaluation of the procedure is essential. The three aims of this thesis are to provide an overview of the literature on unicompartmental knee arthroplasty in order to justify the introduction of this device, to evaluate the clinical results, and to focus on the potential pitfalls of the Oxford phase-3 mobile-bearing unicompartmental knee arthroplasty.