Abstract
A prospective exploratory study of fat emboli in patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty was performed in patients randomly assigned to surgery with computer-assisted navigation or standard technique. Transesophageal echocardiography of the right atrium was recorded for 5 consecutive 1-minute intervals after tourniquet deflation. Emboli were graded on a scale of 0 to 3 based on embolism size, amount of atrium filled, and duration of embolic shower, creating an overall score of 0 to 9. The mean (SD, range) of the 5 overall scores for each total knee arthroplasty was 6.00 (0.76, 4.6-7.4) for computer-assisted navigation (22 patients) and 6.42 (0.97, 4.6-7.9) for standard technique (22 patients) (P = .14), with a 95% confidence interval for the difference of -0.11 to 0.95. We conclude that any difference in extent of emboli between the 2surgical techniques is unlikely to be of clinical significance.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1034-1040 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Journal of Arthroplasty |
Volume | 25 |
Issue number | 7 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Oct 2010 |
Keywords
- Computer-assisted navigation
- Embolism
- Fat emboli
- Total knee arthroplasty
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Orthopedics and Sports Medicine