TO STUDY PROXIMAL FIBULAR OSTEOTOMY IN MEDIAL COMPARTMENT OSTEOARTHRITIS OF THE KNEE AND TO PERFORM EFFECTIVE AND INEXPENSIVE AND PAIN RELIEF POSTOPERATIVELY
Introduction: Osteoarthritis is a chronic progressive disease accompanied by joint pain, stiffness and deformity. Surgical treatment currently includes high tibial osteotomy (HTO), uni-compartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA). These are expensive procedure with serious complications. Proximal fibular osteotomy (PFO) is a simple and safe procedure that also has a brief recovery period. Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of proximal fibular osteotomy as an upcoming surgery for improvement in pain and medial joint space in patients with medial compartment osteoarthritis of the knee. Methods: A total of 30 patients (38 knees; 8 bilateral cases) underwent proximal fibular osteotomy for medial compartment knee osteoarthritis from January 2014 to December 2016 at Sree Balaji Medical College and Hospital, Chrompet, Chennai and were regularly followed up. Both pre and postoperative full weight bearing radiographs were compared for the medial and lateral joint space along with the visual analogue scale (VAS) score and the American knee society score (KSS). Results: All of the 30 patients were followed up. Among them 11 were male and 19 were female. The mean age of participants was 56 years. 34 of the knees were grade 2 based on Kellgren Lawrence classification and 4 were grade 3. The average preoperative and postoperative VAS score were 76.5 and 2.7 points respectively and the average preoperative and postoperative KSS scores were 33.6 and 83.8 points respectively. The medial joint space also improved significantly from an average of 1.14mm to 3.02mm. Conclusion: In conclusion we would like to say that PFO is an excellent alternate surgery for management of medial compartment osteoarthritis of the knee. It is simple, inexpensive, effective procedure that is also associated with lesser complications and shorter recovery period as compared to HTO, UKA or TKA