[Stiffness of the knee of joint origin]

The knee usually loses its mobility following trauma, such as fracture of the femur, fracture of the upper extremity of the tibia, or fracture of the patella. We are concerned here only with joint stiffness, exclusive of any case presenting limited mobility of the knee articulation associated with retraction and/or adhesions of the entire quadriceps muscle of the femur. Forceful mobilization is strongly discouraged. The operation consists in removing all obstacles, one by one, the main ones being adhesion of the patella to the femur due to sclerosis of the cul-de-sac; adhesion of the lateral parts to the internal and external surfaces of the condyle, retraction of the patellar retinacula; finally, multiple intra-articular adhesions. This loosening procedure is studied here and its results are analyzed.