The current trends for lateral unicondylar knee arthroplasty.

Unicompartmental osteoarthritis of the knee is a relatively common disease that is seen in 40% of the population. Although disease isolated to the medial compartment of the knee is more common, isolated lateral disease also frequently exists (25% vs 10%). However, surgeons perform medial unicondylar knee replacement at a ratio of 10:1 when compared with lateral unicondylar knee replacement. This may be attributed to lack of familiarity or the increased difficulty of the procedure. Recent literature suggests that with proper patient selection, surgical technique, and implant choice, early survivorship ranges from 95% to 99%.