Importance

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Abstract

The invention relates to a method for reconstructing a femoral portion of a knee in a total knee replacement, the distal end of which has medial and lateral condyles and an intercondylar notch therebetween defining a distal patellar groove for the articulation of the patella with the femur during flexion of the knee. The method comprising the steps of: locating and drilling a hole in the intercondylar notch to access an intermedullary canal of a femur; installing a femoral alignment guide onto an intermedullary rod; inserting the intermedullary rod through said hole toward a proximal end of the femur; moving said femoral alignment guide into contact with the intercondylar notch of the knee; positioning a femoral cutting block relative to the alignment guide; securing the cutting block to the femur to align a guide surface of the cutting block at a predetermined proximal distance from said intercondylar notch; removing the femoral alignment guide and rod from the femur; resecting the distal lateral and medial condyles along a plane using the guide surface of the resection block as a resection reference, wherein the plane is displaced from what will become a new prosthetic joint line generally coincidental with the end of the distal end of the original lateral condyle, and wherein the distance from the resected surface of the distal end of the original lateral condyle is less than the distance from the resected surface of the distal end of the original medial condyle; and determining an appropriate size of a femoral component having a size and condyle thickness which will reconstruct the lateral condyle and position the distal patellar groove at about the same distal locations to approximate the anatomy of the natural knee being replaced and to position the medial condyle of the femoral component at the same distal position as the original lateral condyle. The structures of the femoral alignment guide and cutting block are also disclosed.

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First Claim