In vivo contact pressures in total knee arthroplasty.

This study compared the in vivo femoropolyethylene contact pressures generated in fixed-bearing total knee arthroplasty (TKAs) with those in mobile-bearing TKAs. In vivo kinematics obtained from a 2-dimensional to 3-dimensional registration technique and soft tissue locations derived from computed tomographic scans were entered into a 3-dimensional inverse dynamics mathematical model to determine the in vivo bearing contact forces. The contact areas were obtained from the assembly of computer-aided design models of the components. The contact pressure was defined as the ratio of the contact forces to the contact areas. The results indicate that the in vivo contact pressures in each TKA are greater for the medial condyle than for the lateral condyle. The ability of the mobile-bearing TKA to rotate maintains higher femoropolyethylene contact, resulting in lesser contact pressures, as compared with the fixed-bearing TKA.