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young, active person with unicompartmental disease, since it gets them up and
moving pretty quickly," says Gary Levengood, MD, an orthopedic surgeon at
Sports Medicine South in Lawrenceville, Ga., who notes the life expectancy of a
partial knee is 20 years. "But it's also good for patients in their 70s or 80s who
have unicompartmental disease, because older patients who get the operation to
reduce pain in the knee bounce back quicker than they would after undergoing a
total joint replacement."
Don't underestimate the importance of having staffers who are familiar with
orthopedic procedures, preferably joint replacements, says Dr. Levengood.
Since uni knee cases move quickly and involve several intricate steps, it's
good to have an experienced OR team that can anticipate what the surgeon
needs next and ensure that the room runs efficiently.
Selecting the implant system
Once you have the right surgeons, staff and patients, you're going to need to
stock the right uni knee system. You have plenty of options. From standard off-
the-shelf implant systems to advances in robotic-assisted navigation, manufac-
turers are trying to make the procedure more accessible to more facilities. Here
are some factors to consider when deciding which implants to buy.
• Stock options. In recent years, several off-the-shelf unicompartmental sys-
tems have upgraded their instruments and cutting guides, says Dr. Della Valle.
The latest uni systems also tout new drill guides that allow for more precise
implant alignment, fewer instruments for improved case efficiency and smaller,
better tools that let surgeons balance flexion and extension gaps to restore the
knee's normal ligament tension. Additionally, several systems now boast more-
forgiving designs, says Dr. Della Valle, so surgeons can insert implants with a few
degrees of misalignment and patients may still have good outcomes.
• Fixed or mobile? Implant designs vary, but one important distinction is
whether the implant is fixed-bearing or mobile-bearing, says Dr. Della Valle.
Mobile-bearing implants feature a polyethylene insert that can rotate a few
