Introduction:

Total knee arthroplasty is frequently performed. The good alignment of the prosthetic components allows a faster rehabilitation and a better functioning, however recently, little or no correlation has been found between the warm malalignment and revision rates.

Objective:

A clinical, observational, retrospective and transversal study, to determine if the alteration of the alignment in the prosthetic knee affects the functionality.

Material and methods:

Sample of 67 patients with knee prostheses, with x-rays in coronal and sagittal planes and measurements of angles α, β, γ, σ according to international standardization, evaluated with the scale of the American Association modified by Insall.

Results:

67 patients with age mean and SD of 70 years ± 13.61, variation of 47 to 87 years: corresponding 68.6% (n = 46) to female gender, it was found that the angles β, γ and σ lesser of normal paramethers, increase possibility of poor clinical results (p < 0.05), but only γ alterations increases bad functional results (p = 0.0005).

Conclusions:

The alignment of the prosthetic components can present variation in their angular relationship, the repercussion in the functionality is observed mainly when there is misalignment in the sagittal plane, corresponding to a decrease of the angles γ.