The treatment of osteoarthritis with unconstrained and constrained knee prostheses

The first cases of knee prosthesis implantation at the orthopaedic department of the Freiburg university hospital are discussed. Surgery was indicated by advanced osteoarthritis which showed no improvement under conservative treatment. Indications concerning the choice of knee joint replacement with unconstrained or constrained prostheses are also discussed. Considerations of these indications as well as operative technique and consequent functional treatment usually produced good results. Follow up studies show equally good results for the GSB-total knee endoprosthesis (constrained) as for the surface type prosthesis (unconstrained).