[Osteotomy of the tibia in the prevention and therapy of post-traumatic knee arthrosis]

In this article it has been argued that: (1) factors leading to the post-traumatic osteoarthritis of the knee are (a) abnormal mechanical axis of the knee resulting from post-traumatic varus or valgus deformity, (b) damage to the articular surface of the tibial condyles and (c) excessive venous congestion in the subchondral zone of the upper tibial epiphysis. (2) high tibial osteotomy corrects all above mentioned factors and is therefore supposed to be the method of choice in the therapy and prevention of post-traumatic osteoarthritis of the knee. (3) in the years 1970-75 we performed 14 such operations and achieved 8 good and 6 fair results.