Patella intraosseous blood flow disturbance during a medial or lateral arthrotomy in total knee arthroplasty: a laser Doppler flowmetry study

Patella complications are recognized sequelae of total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Disruption of blood flow to the patella and adjacent soft tissues during surgery may contribute to reduced viability of the bone and patella ligament tissue. The effect on genicular blood flow to the medial and lateral patella was compared for a medial (MA) and lateral arthrotomy (LA) during TKA. Laser Doppler flowmetry was used to measure both baseline and postarthrotomy flow in vivo for 16 primary TKA patients. Flow in the lateral patella was reduced approximately 20% for both MA and LA. Conversely, the use of MA resulted in substantial reduction in flow to the medial patella (53%) compared to the lateral approach (27%). A large standard deviation of scores was evident in all cases. Although there was a tendency for LA to disturb the patellar blood flow less, the difference was not significant. It was concluded that neither approach is superior regarding the blood flow preservation to the patella. Hence, a lateral approach might only have an advantage in knee joints that are likely to need a lateral release in combination with an MA—e.g., a valgus deformity or preoperative patella maltracking.