This case report concerns surgical decision
making. The subject is a 59 year old male orthopaedic
surgeon with medial compartment knee
arthritis. Both high tibial valgus osteotomy and
uni-compartmental knee replacement would be
appropriate with similar outcomes reported in the
literature. Surprisingly, almost all young surgeons
recommended a uni-compartmental knee replacement
and almost all older surgeons recommended
a high tibial osteotomy. We discuss the reasons
that surgeon age, which is clearly irrelevant to the
optimal decision, is the dominant determinant of
surgical recommendation for this patient.
