Restoration of the joint line in total knee arthroplasty.

The purpose of the study was to assess the effect of the joint line position in a posterior cruciate ligament-retaining, mobile-bearing total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Seventy-six consecutive TKAs performed by 1 surgeon were prospectively assessed for a minimum of 2.5 years. Posterior cruciate ligament-retaining, mobile-bearing TKA was performed in all cases. The joint line was elevated 1 mm on average (range, -11 to +10). There was no correlation between joint line position and range of motion, knee function scores, knee pain scores, or patellar height. The joint line position in a posterior cruciate-retaining, mobile-bearing (LCS AP Glide; DePuy, Leeds, United Kingdom) TKA did not affect the early clinical results.