Residual posterior femoral condyle osteophyte affects the flexion range after total knee replacement.

We followed up 92 patients with total knee replacement and a pre-operative knee flexion of at least 90 degrees . The patients were followed up regularly at 3 months, 6 months and 1 year. The outcome measured was the amount of maximum passive knee flexion at the end of 1 year after replacement. The potential factors affecting the final flexion range were investigated. After regression analysis, apart from pre-operative knee flexion (p<0.001), the most significant independent surgical factors that predict the amount of post-operative flexion were presence of residual posterior femoral condyle osteophyte (p=0.046) and overstuffing the patella by more than 2 mm during resurfacing of the patella (p<0.001).