Symptomatic Improvement after Proximal Fibular Osteotomy in Osteoarthritis Knee: A Reality Check with Follow-up Series

Abstract Proximal fibular osteotomy (PFO) is newer and relatively less invasive surgery that is effective for symptomatic relief in medial compartment knee osteoarthritis. Most of the studies include short follow-up. Hence, the long-term effect of PFO is still not well established. In this series, authors described 16 patients who underwent PFO and followed up until 5 years. Response was noted in the Numeric Pain Rating Scale and the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC) scale at pre-operative assessment, 1 month, 1 year and 5 years. PFO provided very good symptomatic relief for initial one year, but after that, the beneficial effect of PFO reaches at plateau. For few of the cases, symptoms even got worsen after one year. Only two patients out of 16 had sustained symptomatic improvement in 5 th year. This series reflects the opposite result to most of the available literature regarding symptomatic relief following PFO. For shorter period, PFO is proven to be beneficial, but its long-term effect is still debatable.