Nylon Membrane Arthroplasty of the Knee in Chronic Arthritis

A Brief History of Total Knee Arthroplasty

“…In an attempt to simplify the mechanics of the knee, Gluck proposed the complete resection of articulating surfaces and cruciate ligaments and used a hinged prosthesis made of ivory to recreate the joint. The beginning of 1900 was the era of interposition arthroplasty and several substances were used, like fat (Lexer in 1917) (Kuhns in 1950) and skin (Brown in 1958). Campbell popularized the use of free fascial transplants as an interposition material.…”

Total Knee Arthroplasty

“…In an attempt to simplify the mechanics of the knee, Gluck proposed the complete resection of articulating surfaces and cruciate ligaments and used a hinged prosthesis made of ivory to recreate the joint. The beginning of 1900 was the era of interposition arthroplasty and several substances were used, like fat (Lexer in 1917), chromatized pig's bladder (Baer in 1918), fat and fascia lata (Murphy in 1913, Putti in 1921and Albee in 1928, cellophane (Sampson in 1949), sheets of nylon (Kuhns in 1950) and skin (Brown in 1958). Campbell popularized the use of free fascial transplants as an interposition material.…”

History of Total Knee Replacement

“…"These patients either had insufficient motion to satisfy them, or more often the degree of mobility was satisfactory but lateral instability was present and proved so troublesome as to offset the advantages of mobility." Even as late as 1950, good results were being described by Kuhns and Potter (1950) using nylon membrane as the interpositional material. By 1964, however, the authors had abandoned this procedure because of a high rate of recurrent deformity.…”