Der Orthopäde
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Osteotomies in the knee region for incipient osteoarthritis in active patients have become increasingly popular in recent years. A computer-guided navigation system should help increase the surgeon's accuracy and lower the risk of intraoperative complications for this technically demanding type of surgery. Furthermore, computer navigation might be a powerful research and educational tool. The technical principles and the clinical implications of this system for knee osteotomies are described in the following article.
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The present review analyzes the rare indications for sagittal knee osteotomies either for some complex cases of capsular and ligamentous laxities in combination with or without bony deformities in the sagittal plane. A thorough clinical and radiological analysis of the patients' knees is mandatory. We routinely recommend lateral standing X-rays to assess not only the bony structures, but also an abnormal knee laxity in the sagittal plane. We present different surgical options and preliminary results of these technically demanding procedures.
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In high tibial closing-wedge osteotomies (HTO), closure of an osteotomy gap after resection of a bony wedge can be associated with a fissure of the medial cortex of the tibial head (MCT). The effect of a broken MCT on the recurrence of varus deformity is disputed. In this study, serial roentgen stereometric analysis (RSA) was used to determine the fixation stability of a rigid internal "L" plate after HTO. ⋯ Twelve weeks after HTO, translations between tibial segments were below the accuracy of the RSA setup in the majority of patients. Group 1 patients demonstrated a higher initial fixation stability, less occurrence of varus deformity, and a higher HSS score compared to patients with larger wedge sizes and frequent fracture of the MCT (group 2). Before bone healing is achieved, the integrity of the MCT plays a crucial role for the clinical and radiological outcome after HTO.