Total Knee Arthroplasty

Much of the decision making processes in surgery of the arthritic conditions of the knee have changed drastically in the last 10 years. With the success of total knee arthroplasty fusion has been limited to infection, multiply-failed arthroplasty and some cases of Charcot arthropathy, and the role for osteotomy has been significantly reduced. However, the variety of arthroplasties (total replacement, patellar resurfacing, and unicompartmental arthroplasty), and the selection of methods of bone resection and ligament balancing, have added several layers of complexity to this subject. The statement ‘Do a Total Knee Replacement’ is only a beginning to the discussion of how to perform surgery on an arthritic knee with present methods.