Tibial slope is highly variable in patients undergoing primary total knee arthroplasty: Analysis of 13,546 computed tomography scans

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to retrospectively measure with computed tomography (CT) the posterior tibial slope (PTS) to establish the average anatomy and the incidence of outliers in patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty (TKA). Our cohort included 13,546 arthritic patients: 8241 (61%) female; 5305 (39%) male. The average PTS angle was 7.2 degrees +/- 3.7 degrees (range, -5 degrees to 25 degrees). The average of PTS angle of the males was 7.17 degrees +/- 3.82 degrees and females was 7.24 degrees +/- 3.57 degrees. A significant number of patients 35.0% (4149) were identified outliers in PTS. 1568 (11.6%) patients' PTS angle was less than 4 degrees, 2581 (19.1%) patients' PTS anglewas more than 10 degrees. These data can be useful to determine optimum techniques and methodology to perform more accurate TKA. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.