ArticleKnee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA2026
Comparable outcomes and early revision rates between restricted and unrestricted functional knee positioning in robotic-assisted total knee arthroplasty for varus deformities ≥10°.
Article in Knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Robotic-assisted total knee arthroplasty: radiological precision, clinical outcomes, and benchmarks for emerging systems.Journal of robotic surgery · 2026Review
- Functional alignment: Defined personalized alignment strategy with promising outcomes and room for improvement.Knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA · 2026Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeFunctional knee positioning (FKPos) in total knee arthroplasty (TKA) optimises outcomes by balancing individual anatomical and soft tissue characteristics. Managing marked varus deformity presents challenges in achieving balance when tibial alignment is restricted to 3° of varus, necessitating either medial soft tissue release or unrestricted tibial positioning. This study aims to compare restricted FKPos with medial soft tissue release to unrestricted FKPos without soft tissue release in patients with varus deformity ≥10°.
methodsThis retrospective, two-center study analysed robotic-assisted TKAs. Patients were categorised into two groups: restricted FKPos with medial soft tissue release (Group A) and unrestricted FKPos without soft tissue release (Group B). Inclusion criteria required a preoperative coronal alignment of ≥10° varus. Outcomes included Knee Society Scores (KSS), Forgotten Joint Scores (FJS), complications, and implant survivorship over a median follow-up of 38 months (interquartile range [IQR] 30-45).
resultsA total of 205 patients (Group A: 71 and Group B: 134) were included. No significant differences were observed in functional outcomes (KSS and FJS) or complication rates between the groups. Median tibial varus alignment was 1° in Group A and 4.5° in Group B (p < 0.0001). Implant survivorship was comparable between groups (1.4% in Group A and 0.75% in Group B; p = 0.65; hazard ratio = 1.94; 95% confidence interval: 0.11-35.62).
conclusionThis study demonstrated that restricted FKPos with medial soft tissue release and unrestricted FKPos without soft tissue release result in comparable short-term outcomes, complication rates, and implant survivorship in ≥10° varus deformities. While these findings suggest that unrestricted tibial positioning may be a promising alternative to traditional approaches, further studies with long-term follow-up are needed to confirm its safety and durability. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.