The purpose of this study was to provide the basic data for the anatomy of distal femur by real measurement, to determine the morphologic fit between the distal femur of Koreans and the femoral prostheses in total knee arthroplasty.

For 173 knees of 117 patients who underwent total knee arthroplasty, we measured the mediolateral width and the anteroposterior height of the distal femur during operation.

The average mediolateral width of the distal femur was 68.4±4.3 mm, and the average anteroposterior height of the medial and lateral condyle were 59.0±4.7 mm and 60.8±4.0 mm respectively. the distal femurs of Koreans are smaller on average than the femoral prostheses used in Korea. The average ratio of height to width of the distal femur is 0.86±0.07, but the ratios of the five different kinds of femoral prostheses were not constant. So discrepancy between the ratio of the distal femur and the femoral prosthesis results in poor bony coverage.

A more adequate femoral prosthesis is required to improve the compatibility to the distal femur. These results should contribute to the development of new model of femoral prosthesis for Koreans.