Medial closure supracondylar femoral osteotomy: an effective solution for long-term treatment of arthritic valgus knee?

Purpose The aim of this work was to retrospectively analyze the clinical, subjective, and radiological results of medial closing-wedge distal femur osteotomy (MCW-DFO) for the treatment of osteoarthritis (OA) in valgus knee at medium- to long-term follow-up. Materials and methods A total of 57 patients (62 knees) treated with MCW-DFO between 1984 and 2018 were included in the study. Patient age at the time of the surgery ranged between 28 and 61 years (average: 48 years). All patients with a minimum follow-up of 4 years were contacted to request for them to undergo clinical, subjective, and radiological evaluation. Preoperative hip-knee-ankle (HKA) angle (i.e., preoperative valgus malalignment) was 8.6 degrees +/- 2 degrees. Patients were evaluated using the following scales: the Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS), the Knee Society Score (KSS), the International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC), the Visual Analog Scale (VAS), and the Numeric Rating Scale 11 (NRS-11). Results Mean follow-up was 11.6 +/- 4.9 years, and a total of 17 patients (20 knees) were available for the last examination. At maximum follow-up, 4 patients underwent conversion to a total knee replacement (20%); their survival rate was 100% at 10 years and 66.7% at 15 years, as estimated using the Kaplan-Meier curve. The subjective Knee Society Score improved on average from 37.7 +/- 10 to 63.9 +/- 15.4. The objective Knee Society Score improved on average from 42.2 +/- 11.7 to 75 +/- 22.5. The pain detected through the VAS and NRS-11 scales improved from 56.7 +/- 12.9 to 42 +/- 17.1 and from 5.8 +/- 1.1 to 4.4 +/- 1.7, respectively. Thirteen patients (70%) required hardware removal at an average time of 19 +/- 4 months due to a local nuisance. Conclusions MCW-DFO can improve symptoms in patients with osteoarthritis in a valgus knee at medium- to long-term follow-up, reducing the progression of osteoarthritis in properly selected patients.