ABSTRACT
The first account of knee arthroplasty is often attributed to Verneuil, who in 1860 described the formation of a ‘false articulation’ within the arthritic knee by using softtissue interposition. Later in the nineteenth century,
Dr Theophilus Gluck designed a knee prosthesis made of ivory, which he implanted in patients using a combination of plaster of Paris and colophony (a type of resin) (Fig. 101.1). As might be expected, these early attempts met with little success and often had disastrous results because of infection and loss of fixation.
