Revision total knee arthroplasty. A survival analysis.

The results of revision total knee arthroplasty (TKA) have been documented reasonably well in the literature. It is notable, however, that none of these reports have used the technique known as survival analysis to compare virgin and revision arthroplasties. This technique has an advantage over conventional analyses because it does not exclude patient data for inadequate follow-up study or patient death. In this study, survival analysis was applied to 37 revision TKAs performed exclusively by the senior author. With failure defined as removal of the prosthesis, revision surgeries experienced a 97.0% survival rate at 6 years. The secondary arthroplasty demonstrated a significantly lower survival rate than the index procedure over a period of approximately 6 years.