ArticleJournal of robotic surgery2026
Natural history of radiographic tracker pinhole recovery after robotic-assisted cementless total knee arthroplasty.
Article in Journal of robotic surgery, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Robotic-assisted total knee arthroplasty (RATKA) requires tracker pin placement, creating cortical pinholes that may remain visible on postoperative radiographs. This study evaluated the radiographic natural history of tracker pinhole recovery after RATKA. This retrospective cohort study included 369 consecutive primary RATKAs performed using 4.0-mm bicortical array pins. Each patient had one radiograph within approximately 1 month, 3-4 months, 5-6 months, and 9-12 months; no routine radiographs were scheduled at 7-8 months. Recovery phenotypes were early recovery at 5-6 months (n = 224), delayed recovery first documented at 9-12 months (n = 74), and persistent visibility at the 9-12-month assessment (n = 70). One pinhole-related fracture was analyzed separately. Separate exploratory logistic-regression models compared delayed versus early recovery and persistent visibility versus early recovery, with Benjamini-Hochberg false-discovery-rate adjustment. No complete recovery was observed at 1 month or 3-4 months. Early recovery occurred in 224 knees (60.7%), delayed recovery in 74 (20.1%), persistent visibility at 9-12 months in 70 (19.0%), and an adverse pin-site fracture in one (0.3%). Overall, 298 knees (80.8%) demonstrated radiographic recovery by the late assessment. BMI differed across the three recovery groups (Kruskal-Wallis p = 0.002). In adjusted analysis, higher BMI was associated with delayed versus early recovery (adjusted OR 1.10 per kg/m², 95% CI 1.04-1.17; p = 0.002; false-discovery-rate q = 0.022), but not with persistent visibility. Diabetes and smoking were not associated with either trajectory. Two periprosthetic fractures occurred (0.5%), both requiring reoperation; only one involved the tracker pinhole region. No revision TKA, femoral radiolucency, or progressive radiolucency was recorded. Tracker pinholes after RATKA remodel progressively, with most recovery documented by 5-6 months and additional recovery at the 9-12-month assessment. Higher BMI was associated with delayed but eventual recovery in an exploratory adjusted model, while no association was observed with persistent visibility. Persistent visibility was not accompanied by progressive implant-interface radiolucency. A fracture directly involving a tracker pinhole was rare.
Indexed as
Identifiers
42624983What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.