"Knee replacement is bound to fail-providing the patient lives long enough." There is some truth in this hoary cliche, so why write books on the subject? I think the answer is that knee replacement has at last become established and even respectable. The more absurd surgical extravaganzas have been recognised and discarded; today a patient can expect to rely on his new knee to serve him with comfort for a fair number of years. Of course even the early knee replacements often made the patient comfortable; the trouble was they just did not last. All too often the innovator's enthusiasm was...