I had a close relative who was given the option of a partial or total knee replacement. He chose the partial, thinking it would be less invasive and more conservative. After the operation, he was in intense pain for a couple of weeks, and then the whole thing failed. He got a total knee replacement after only a couple of months, and desribed it as far less painful than the partial. My guess is that the partial must be done absolutely perfectly in order for it to work with your existing parts, whereas a total knee is all "new parts". I would not be surprised to find out that partial knee replacements have a greater failure rate than total knee replacements.
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