Proponents of minimally invasive total knee arthroplasty (TKA) state accelerated patient recovery and increased patient satisfaction as advantages. However, retractors state a greater incidence of iatrogenic nerve injury, implant mal-positioning and increased rates of revision. This study compares the clinical and radiological outcomes of minimally invasive and conventional exposure TKA using a meta-analysis. A search of published and unpublished literature was performed. Eighteen studies including 1582 TKAs were reviewed: 822 minimally invasive versus 760 conventional exposure TKAs. The findings of this study suggest that whilst incision length was significantly smaller in MIS (p=0.001), and flexion range of motion was significantly greater following MIS (p=0.01), there was no statistically significant differences in all other clinical or radiological outcomes between MIS or conventional approach TKA surgery (p>0.05).
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