Total knee arthroplasty has become a common procedure for treatment of severe osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and post-traumatic arthritis. In the past, failure of total knee arthroplasty was commonly attributable to aseptic loosening, often associated with component malalignment, soft tissue imbalance. With improved surgical instrumentation and soft tissue balancing techiniques, failure secondary to mechanical loosening has been minimal. But surgeons are still dissatisfied with implant malalignment. Correct tibiofemoral alignment seems to be particularly important since it is generally agreed that axial deviation and imprecise implantation may lead to loosening of the implant component. Navigation systems and robotic techniques could potentially solve problems of imprecision in traditional total knee arthroplasty. It is expected that the success rate and longevity of total knee arthroplasty will be improved during the twenty first century.
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