Severe metallosis after unicompartmental knee arthroplasty.

Sanchis-Alfonso V.

Department of Orthopaedics, Hospital Arnau de Vilanova, Valencia, Spain. sanchis_vicalf@gva.es

We report on a case of a patient who had femoral osteolysis and severe metallosis of the knee joint resulting from the secondary abrasive wear of the metal-backed tibial component of a unicompartmental knee arthroplasty due to massive wear of tibial polyethylene. The failure was diagnosed 11 years after implantation. This metallosis affected the intra-articular tissues and the subchondral bone.

PMID: 17028866 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]