Total knee replacements were performed on three patients with Parkinson's disease. The rehabilitation of all three was, however, hampered by inhibition of the extensor mechanism, hamstring rigidity and poor muscular co-ordination. Medical treatment of the disease did not help. None of the patients became mobile, and all three gradually weakened and died. We suggest that, at least in some patients with Parkinson's disease, knee replacement is contra-indicated.

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We present a study of 67 Oxford bicompartmental total knee replacements performed at a district general hospital. In this general orthopaedic unit, 57 of the knees (85%) had significant relief of pain with a mean fiexion range of 95#{176} and a mean fiexion deformity of only 9#{176}. There was a noticeable difference between osteoarthritic and rheumatoid knees.

Nine hundred and nineteen patients attending orthopaedic clinics in the rural areas of the Cotswolds and Chilterns were examined for evidence of Dupuytren's contracture. Five per cent of men and 3.5 per cent of women showed evidence of the disease which was largely bilateral but confined to the palm in forty per cent of men and eighty per cent of women. A positive correlation between repeated stretching of the palmar fascia and the presence of Dupuytren's contracture confined to the palm was established.

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