Lateral Surgical Approaches to the Knee

The lateral anatomy of the knee is a complex layer of tendinous, ligamentous, and neurovascular structures that must be taken into account during surgical approaches for extra-articular or intra-articular procedures. Numerous approaches exist for the lateral approach to the knee, from the distal femur, posterolateral corner, anterolateral ligament, intra-articular lateral parapatellar arthrotomy, open or inside-out meniscal repair, to the proximal tibia. In this chapter, we describe the anatomy of the lateral knee in detail, followed by an in-depth description of each of the surgical approaches to the structures above.