Periprosthetic fractures after total knee arthroplasty: review

This review of literature classifies and describes the most common periprosthetic fractures after total knee arthroplasty. Classification systems are usually considered useful when they describe the condition and offer guidelines for the management of a certain condition and are specific and comprehensive. The Lewis and Rorabeck classification can be used to describe these fractures.

The review not only provides the results of the classic techniques, but also new and combined techniques tried by some of the authors. For this review, only original studies, published between 2013 and 2019, were selected. The articles included in the database were selected from PubMed, ScienceDirect and SpringerLink. The searched keywords used to identify the articles were TKA, periprosthetic fractures and total knee arthroplasty.

The aim of this paper was to review the clinical studies related to periprosthetic fractures after total knee arthroplasty from the last six years, in order to understand current perspectives, epidemiology, treatment, and management.

In conclusion, periprosthetic fractures after total knee arthroplasty represent an important problem in medicine, but due to the low number of cases. Despite the increase in incidence, guidelines are mostly based on retrospective studies, personal observations, and expert opinion. The consensus is that treatment should be assigned depending on the patient’s profile and the fracture’s characteristics. Further studies should be performed in order to guide future practitioners in the treatment of periprosthetic fractures.