SIZING AND CUTTING GUIDE FOR RESECTING THE DISTAL END OF THE FEMUR

摘要

A guide, and a method of use of the guide, for making resections to the distal end of a femur during the replacement of a knee joint. The guide comprises a miter block, a posterior guide shoe and an interior guide stylus. The miter block has a plurality of guide slots for alignment and orientation of a blade for making the cuts to be made to fit a particular sized implant. The posterior guide shoe is adapted to contact the posterior curved surface of the femur to position the miter block in the posterior/anterior sense against the distally resected femur. The anterior guide stylus is adapted for gauging the size of the femur relative to the size of an artificial knee implant corresponding to the guide. The tip of the anterior guide stylus is at a predetermined location relative the upper surface of the miter block such that the position of the tip will coincide with the anterior end of the articulation zone of the femur when the posterior guide shoe is properly positioned if the correct size miter block and accordingly implant have been chosen. The predetermined location is such that when the miter block is later used as a guide to the anterior resection, the cut will exit the anterior condyle at that end of the articulation area.