Sixty osteoarthritic knees that were evaluated by arthroscopic,
radiographic, and clinical (Insall knee-rating scale) examination prior to
high tibial valgus osteotomy were re-evaluated radiographically and
clinically after a minimum follow-up of two years. After two and three
years, the clinical scores of the knees with bicompartmental and
tricompartmental osteoarthritis (including exposed subchondral bone in the
lateral compartment) were the same as the scores of the knees with
unicompartmental disease. The scores of the knees with 5 to 13 degrees of
valgus alignment at two years were significantly higher (p less than 0.01)
than the scores of the knees with less than 5 degrees of valgus angulation,
regardless of the arthroscopy scores. Based on the results after two to
three years, the arthroscopic findings prior to osteotomy appeared to have
little, if any, predictive value in evaluating patients for this
procedure.