Research suggesting partial knee replacement for osteoarthritis is more cost-effective than total knee replacement should be treated with caution, say Australian doctors.

The world’s largest randomised trial compared partial knee replacement with total knee replacement for medial compartment osteoarthritis.

Conducted across 27 sites and including 530 patients, it found both surgeries offered similar clinical results after five years of follow-up.

But considering patients’ better self-reported pain and function, based on the Oxford Knee Score questionnaire, as well as the lower cost of surgery and follow-up healthcare, the authors writing in the Lancet concluded partial replacement was more cost-effective.