Cutting block apparatus and method of total knee arthroplasty

A system for performing a knee arthroplasty surgery on a knee portion of a leg of a patient through an incision, comprising:

• a cutting block, comprising:
• a cutting guide, comprising:
• at least one slot for guiding a saw bade to cut the femur,
• an anterior face and a posterior face,
• a femoral cut slot extending from the anterior face to the posterior face to guide a saw blade to cut the femur, and
• a slide extending from a frame of the cutting guide so that the anterior femur can be cut in small increments;
• a body, comprising:
• a groove with flanges, wherein a space defined by the groove with flanges receives the slide extending from the frame of the cutting guide, wherein a main body is pinned to the distal femur,
• a locking screw, which is threadably engaged in a threaded opening of the body, wherein the locking screw bears against the cutting guide and locks the cutting guide against the body;
• a feeler gauge including at least one of a support block and a pointer arm, wherein the pointer arm includes a pointer configured to make contact with patient bone tissue and is extended to an approximation of the depth of the anterior cut along the lateral ridge, locked into place, and then removed prior to the first anterior cut, and
• a foot including a pair of spaced apart projections configured to engage the posterior condyles of the patient's femur, wherein the cutting block further comprises a calibrated ruler disposed on the cutting block, a height of the cutting guide is adjustably configured to receive the calibrated ruler so as to measure proximal to distal depth of the anterior cut, wherein the height of the cutting guide adjusts to match a depth of a femoral cut, and the cutting block is configured to match the position of the anterior to posterior cut with the depth of the distal to proximal cut.