Eighteen major operations on the knee joint were performed in sixteen
patients with hemophilia, eight operations being synovectomy and ten being
total knee replacement. Synovectomy was performed for recurrent bleeding
associated with synovitis. The average age at operation for patients who
underwent synovectomy was 16.4 years, and the average follow-up was
thirty-one months. No patient had a recurrent hemorrhage following
synovectomy. The patients who had total knee arthroplasty for disabling
pain had an average age at surgery of 35.7 years and an average follow-up
of twenty-three months. The pain was markedly reduced in all eight patients
and all achieved full unprotected weight-bearing. Loss of some motion was
observed in twelve patients, but the functional gain outweighed the loss of
knee mobility. Seven major complications occurred in the sixteen patients,
but none of them affected the outcome.