**2. Materials and Methods**

#### *2.1. Participants*

Eight freshly frozen full-body specimens (human cadavers, donated to the College of Medicine, The Catholic university of Korea, 16 knees; five male pairs and three female pairs; mean age, 76 years; range: 58–86 years) were used (Table 1). The two knees of each cadaver were randomly assigned to either the KA TKA or the MA TKA group. All specimens were macroscopically intact, and none exhibited any gross pathology. This cadaveric study was approved by Institutional Cadaver Research Committee (College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea) (R19-A018).


**Table 1.** Demographic variables of the specimens.

#### *2.2. Preparation of Specimens*

The specimens were frozen at 20 ◦C until they were thawed to room temperature on the evening prior to dissection. All skin and subcutaneous tissues were dissected away, leaving only the extensor mechanism, knee capsule, and periarticular soft tissues intact. We took high-resolution anterior-to-posterior photographs of each leg and measured the anatomical and mechanical axes of both the femur and tibia and the hip–knee–ankle axis. The severity of osteoarthritis (OA) in each cadaveric specimen was graded as mild (no articular cartilage lesions), moderate (focal lesion present), or severe (extensive lesion present) (Table 1). Separation of the quadriceps femoris revealed the vastus medialis, rectus femoris/vastus intermedius, and vastus lateralis. Additionally, separation of the hamstring muscles revealed the biceps femoris and semimembranosus/semitendinosus. Then, suturing the parted muscle branches with wire ensured the connection between the muscles. The femur and the tibia were cut 30 cm proximal and 25 cm distal to the joint line, respectively.
