No controversy exists concerning the treatment of tuberculosis of the knee joint in the adult. The value of surgical procedures to produce femorotibial synostosis in the general management of a tuberculous knee in the period from young adult life to middle age is no longer debatable.
For the aged there is also reasonable agreement that amputation at the thigh is the logical procedure.
The highest incidence of tuberculosis of the knee joint is, however, in infancy and childhood. It is in the years of growth, while epiphysial cartilages are still present, that there is a lack of agreement as to the place of surgical measures in the treatment of this condition.
During the period from birth to epiphysial closure, any surgical measure which encroaches on the articular portions of the tibia and femur has been looked on with distrust by the majority of surgeons. Girdlestone,1 after circularizing fifty-five orthopedic