Those who do often differ in their relative indications and contraindications to performing them. Knee surgeons differ in their willingness to offer patients such interventions. Recent research has looked into potential benefits of these options over total knee arthroplasty. 1 Recently, a trend has developed towards less invasive surgery with uni-compartmental knee replacement (UKR) and high tibial osteotomy (HTO) gaining increasing popularity. Arthroscopic debridement in the osteoarthritic knee has fallen out of favour due to poor clinical results. Traditionally, the treatment of choice would be a total knee arthroplasty however, this involves removing healthy joint surfaces. Many patients present to orthopaedic surgeons with a painful knee attributed to osteoarthritis of the medial compartment, where the lateral compartment and patella-femoral joint are relatively spared.
