A partial knee implant with a fixed bearing or a mobile one: which is better? There’s one clear winner.
A landmark new study commissioned by YKC’s Nick London has investigated claims that “mobile-bearing implants have an advantage due to less wear” and found those claims to be false. The outcome? “The best fixed-bearing partial knee implants are better than the best mobile-bearing implants.”
For years, it’s been suggested (without a great deal of convincing evidence) that partial knee implants with mobile polyethylene bearings placed between the resurfaced ends of the shinbone and thighbone have a crucial advantage over implants that employ a fixed bearing. Mobile bearings used in the Oxford partial knee and other implants, so the narrative goes, are harder wearing than fixed, which reduces revision rates and enables implants to last longer.
But a landmark study commissioned by YKC’s Nick London and using data from worldwide studies and joint registries has found no evidence to support this. In fact, there is lab-based evidence to indicate the opposite is true.
In fact, across every parameter – for young and old, in clinical studies and lab tests, and in cemented and cementless variants – the study finds that the best fixed-bearing partial knee implants perform as well as or better than the best mobile-bearing implants.
What does that mean for patients and surgeons? Nick says, “There is now no single advantage of mobile bearing over fixed bearing. For a patient thinking of partial knee resurfacing/replacement and for surgeons starting their partial knee career, there is absolutely no doubt: you should start with a fixed bearing.”
For more on this:
> Read Nick’s full account of the study and its results
> Explore Nick’s advice for patients and surgeons
Prof. Nick London
Private appointments weekly at The Duchy Hospital Harrogate & Nuffield Hospital Leeds
What Is A Partial Knee Replacement?
As we explore here, your knee has three major compartments