Painful knee arthroplasty: surgical approach

There are many conditions that may be responsible of a painful knee prosthesis. The possible causes are not always easily diagnosed. Common causes of prosthetic failure, such as aseptic loosening, infection, instability, progressive patellar arthropathy and recurrent synovitis are associated with clearly defined radiographic and/or clinical evidence. Prosthetic infection should always be considered first until any other cause has been demonstrated. In the presence of an infected prosthesis we carry out a two-step revision. Aseptic loosening needs implant revision more often with increasing prosthesis stability. Varus-valgus, anteroposterior, global and patello-femoral instability are failures often due to technical errors; superstabilized or constrained implants are needed depending on the instability entity. In presence of patello-femoral pain it is necessary to evaluate the stability of the patellar component and any alterations in its motion. Patellar progressive arthropathy can often cause late-onset knee pain; in this case patella resurfacing is needed. Altered patellar tracking, may need a lateral release but in some cases is related to misalignment of the components and the revision procedure is mandatory. Nevertheless, the diagnosis and treatment of a painful knee prosthesis can be extremely difficult if there is no clear evidence of any of the most common causes of failure. Referred pain, ligament and tendon dysfunction, cutaneous neuromas, synovitis, a patellar clunk have to be diagnosed and treated. A possible aetiological understimated factor is painful knee prosthesis due to metals sensibilization, in particular to nickel. In this event the quantity of nickel in the revision prosthesis must be minimal.