Patent ID: 7572293

Claim:
A surgical method for knee arthroplasty to replace at least a portion of one or more condyles of a patient's tibia, the method comprising the steps of: drilling a hole in a condyle of the tibia, inserting an elongated, cylindrical pin into the hole drilled in the condyle, resecting at least a portion of the condyle to create a surgically-prepared, generally horizontal surface and a surgically-prepared, generally vertical surface, removing the pin from the hole drilled in the condyle, forming a slot in a location on the surgically-prepared, horizontal surface that is spaced apart from the hole such that the slot extends posteriorly from an opening formed in an anterior surface of the tibia, wherein the forming step includes forming the slot to include (i) a first downwardly-extending surface, (ii) a second downwardly-extending surface, and (iii) a rounded, distal surface defining a continuous radius connecting the first and second downwardly-extending surfaces, and inserting a keel of a tibial insert through the opening formed in the anterior surface of the tibia and into the slot formed in the surgically-prepared, horizontal surface.