Knotes is an independent collection of orthopaedic revision and course notes, examination resources and higher-order judgement questions, created to make the study of orthopaedics more structured, connected and accessible.
The project began as a personal set of notes assembled during preparation for the FRCS (Tr & Orth) examination. Over time, those notes grew into a broader body of material spanning basic science, trauma, paediatric orthopaedics, arthroplasty, spine, hand surgery, clinical examination, viva preparation and other areas of orthopaedic practice.
Rather than becoming another large textbook, Knotes has retained the character of working notes: concise enough to revise, detailed enough to return to, and connected so that one subject can naturally lead to another.
Revision, reasoning , judgement and testing
Orthopaedic examinations require more than recall.
Knowing a classification, an operative approach or the indications for a procedure is important; knowing how that information changes a decision is more important.
For this reason, Knotes combines conventional revision material with a large question bank, including 5,160 single-best-answer questions through dedicated thinKbox FRCS and Viva stations designed to exercise interpretation, prioritisation and higher-order clinical judgement.
The intention is not simply to provide more information. It is to make the information easier to retrieve, relate and use.
Open access
The revision content of Knotes is free to read, without advertising and without requiring an account.
Medicine is learned cumulatively. Most of what appears here ultimately rests on the work of generations of clinicians, teachers, researchers, writers and patients. Keeping the educational material openly accessible is therefore an important principle of the project.
Knotes will continue to evolve as material is revised, corrected and expanded.
Sources and references
Knotes has been developed from many years of reading, teaching, clinical practice and examination preparation. No single textbook or resource forms its basis.
Among the principal references that have informed the notes are:
Core orthopaedic texts
- Campbell's Operative Orthopaedics
- Miller's Review of Orthopaedics
- Apley & Solomon's System of Orthopaedics and Trauma
- Postgraduate Orthopaedics — The Candidate's Guide
- Postgraduate Orthopaedics — The Viva Guide
Specialist and examination resources
- Orthobullets
- AO principles and AO educational resources
- Standard specialist texts in trauma, paediatric orthopaedics, hand surgery, arthroplasty, spine surgery, surgical approaches and clinical examination
Contemporary evidence
Where appropriate, material is supplemented by:
- peer-reviewed orthopaedic literature
- systematic reviews and major clinical studies
- professional society guidance
- consensus statements and contemporary clinical recommendations
Individual articles may therefore reflect several sources rather than a single reference.
These resources remain the authoritative places to explore a subject in depth. Knotes is intended to organise, distil and connect knowledge for learning and revision, not to replace the original literature or standard textbooks.
A note on authorship
Knotes is a personal educational project.
Its form has changed considerably since the first notes were written, but the underlying purpose has remained simple: to understand orthopaedics better by writing it down clearly, revisiting it repeatedly and connecting each idea to the next.
The project owes much to teachers, colleagues, trainees and authors whose knowledge and experience have shaped the way orthopaedics is understood and taught.
And, above all, to my mother — for the quiet encouragement, constancy and support that made far more possible than these pages can acknowledge.
This work is offered with gratitude.
thinKbox FRCS
Knotes provides the knowledge library. thinKbox FRCS is the optional personal study environment built around it.
It adds tools for personal notes, backlinks, flashcards, spaced review, capture and private local AI while keeping the Knotes reference material available separately and freely.
Educational use
Knotes is intended for education and revision.
It is not a substitute for clinical judgement, current evidence, institutional protocols, specialist advice or the assessment and management of an individual patient. Medical knowledge changes, and important clinical decisions should always be checked against appropriate contemporary sources.
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