It is not often that the orthopedic surgeon is called on to amputate an extremity. Occasionally amputation may have to be resorted to as a life-saving measure, in far-advanced tuberculosis or other bone disease. The fact, therefore, that such occasions do arise, as well as the fact that the procedure to be described involves essentially orthopedic principles, are sufficient reasons for bringing up the subject before this Section. In conditions requiring amputation through or in the neighborhood of the knee-joint the surgeon has a considerable variety of operative methods to choose from. In this choice he is influenced in the first place by the pathologic condition present which determines how much of the limb must be sacrificed regardless of other conditions, and in the second place by the desire to leave the patient as useful a stump as possible. In the latter consideration weight-bearing is probably the most important factor.