Abstract
Introduction
Femoral stem anteversion after total hip arthroplasty (THA) has always been assessed using CT scan in supine position. In this study, we evaluated the anteversion of the femoral prosthesis neck in functional standing position using EOS® technology with repeatability and reproducibility of the measurements. The data obtained were compared with conventional anatomic measurements.
Materials and Methods
We measured the anteversion of the femoral prosthesis neck in 45 consecutive patients who had THA performed in nine hospitals. All measurements were obtained using the EOS® imaging system with patients in comfortable standing position. The orientation of the final vector representing the femoral neck was measured on 3-dimensional reconstructions. The anatomic femoral anteversion was calculated as in a transverse plane relative to the scanner and to the plane of the reconstructed bicondylar femoral segment (femoral prosthesis neck against the femoral condyles). Functional femoral anteversion (FFA) was measured in the horizontal plane relative to the frontal plane of the patient through the center of two femoral heads. FFA embodies true anteversion of the femoral prosthesis neck relative to the pelvis, representing the combined lower extremity anteversion.
Results
The average anatomic anteversion was 8.7° (−42.2 to 32.8; SD 15.2). The average functional anteversion was −0.2° (−32.7 to 30.2; SD 14.3). The paired Student t test showed a significant difference between these values (p = 0.036).
Discussion
In a significant number of cases, the anatomic orientation of the prosthesis in relation to the posterior bicondylar plane does not correlate with the functional orientation of the frontal plane of the standing patient. Other factors such as tibial, femoral and acetabular anatomic features determine the overall posture of the lower limb and the functional anteversion of the femoral neck prosthesis, highlighting adaptations related to hip-knee relations. EOS® technology can assess patients in functional positions of standing, sitting, squatting or bending forward at the cost of very low exposure to irradiation. These data may be useful in future studies of the orientation of the acetabulum that explore both qualitatively and quantitatively the combined functional anatomy of hip joint and, more precisely, the phenomena of instability and subluxation.
