The evolution of total knee arthroplasty.

The current status of knee replacement surgery suggests that high density polyethylene and chrome cobalt alloy or stainless steel are acceptable materials for use in the intra-articular environment of the knee; that prosthetic components of knee units can be firmly fixed in bone with methylmethacrylate; and that a wide range of prosthetic units are available which will provide acceptable clinical results if used within the limits for which they have been designed. The indications for total knee arthroplasty have been designed. The indications for total knee arthroplasty have become reasonably simple and straightforward. Contraindications for the use of the various units available are relatively obscure and very seldom stressed. Each unit available will fail, however, if used under conditions of bone loss, deformity, and ligamentous instability for which it was not designed. The importance of the surgeon understanding and respecting the limitations of the total knee unit he chooses, and skillfully adapting it to the pathologic anatomy and pathophysiology of the patient's knee cannot be overemphasized.