Abstract

Objective: To perform a systematic review to evaluate clinical, patient-reported, and long-term outcomes to guide future clinical guidelines.
Methodology: Our Study adhered to the Preferred Reporting Item guidelines for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses and was registered in PROSPERO. The review was conducted through Pubmed, EMBASE and Cochrane. Three independent reviewers conducted the literature retrieval, while two reviewers screened the remaining articles, and discrepancies were resolved by a third.
Results: We identified 29 studies including 6,361 patients (UKA: 3,006; TKA: 3,455) published between 2003 and 2023. Studies predominantly used cohort-based designs (69%), with randomized controlled trials representing 14%. Sample sizes ranged from 17 to 1,180 patients. The Oxford Knee Score increased by 13.9 points for UKA and 11.5 points for TKA, while Knee Society Scores showed similar gains. UKA demonstrated greater postoperative range of motion (100° to 135.38° compared to 91° to 126.43° for TKA) and shorter hospital stays (2.1 days vs. 5.4 days).
Conclusion: UKA provides faster recovery, improved range of motion, and cost-effectiveness, while TKA remains the gold standard for advanced knee osteoarthritis due to its broader applicability and long-term outcomes.

Key words: Knee osteoarthritis, osteoarthritis, total knee arthroplasty, unicompartmental knee arthroplasty.