MULTIMODAL DISPLAY AND THE HIP-OP SURGICAL PLANNING SOFTWARE

Abstract

Most of the approaches to computer aided surgery currently in use share the need for an accurate pre-operative surgical planning to establish the optimal conditions that the surgeon should achieve using such specialised instrumentation.

The penetration of these computer-aided planning tools in the clinical practice is still limited. The systems that replicate such 2D planning are user-friendly, but lack the full three-dimensional definition of the implant position. On the contrary, systems based on CT data, which allow a fully 3D planning, usually have cumbersome interfaces. Last but not least all programs currently available are only aimed to visualise the position and orientation of the prosthetic components, presuming that the anatomical referencing is sufficient for the surgeon to decide the correctness of the planning.

The Hip-Op research project was aimed to the development of a complete surgical simulation software environment for the pre-operative planning of total hip replacement surgery. The software had to fulfil the following basic requirements: a CT-based three-dimensional planning environment; a user-friendly graphic user interface based on the Multimodal Display approach; the possibility to integrate analysis modules aimed to provide the surgeon with additional functional data; complete independence from the type of hip prosthesis or from the intra-operative instrumentation.

The graphical interface of Hip-Op is based on an innovative visualisation paradigm, which is called Multimodal display. Hip-Op represents the anatomical objects by means of multiple views, each of which simulates a different medical imaging modality familiar to the medical professional. Two analysis modules are currently integrated in Hip-Op to provide clinically relevant 3D indicators of the implant fit and fill in the host femur.