An operation is described in which the medial head of the gastrocnemius
is firmly fixed by a cancellous screw, through an attached bone block, to
the medial femoral condyle to serve as an intraarticular graft for the
control of chronic posterior instability of the knee. This procedure was
done in eight patients, with a follow-up of twenty-nine to forty-eight
months. The delay from injury to reconstruction averaged forty-two months
(range, five to eighty-four months). At follow-up, stability was improved
in all of the eight patients and the result was rated as good or excellent
in six of them. One failure was due to unrelieved pain and in another
patient a second injury led to reoperation. Because minimum immobilization
is necessary, the postoperative care with this procedure is simplified and
the period of rehabilitation is shorter.