Introduction

For anatomical reconstruction in shoulder arthroplasty, it is important to understand normal glenohumeral geometry. Unfortunately, however, the details of the glenohumeral joint in Asian populations have not been sufficiently evaluated. There is a racial difference in body size, and this difference probably results in a difference in glenohumeral size.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate three-dimensional geometry of the glenohumeral joint in the normal Asian population and to clarify its morphologic features.

[Introduction]

Short tapered wedge-shaped cementless (TW) stems have been widely used for several years. The concept of fixation of TW stem is wedge-fit fixation in the proximal metaphysis. Developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) has anatomical abnormality, such as excessive femoral anteversion, short femoral neck length, narrow femoral cavity, or proximal-distal mismatching of the femoral canal. Therefore, Mismatching between stem and bone might be occurred in DDH. We evaluated intramedullary matching of short TW stem for DDH by three dimensional (3D) digital template in order to clarify whether mismatching between stem and bone is seen in DDH implanted short TW stem.

Introduction:

The widespread use of TKA promoted studies on kinematics after TKA, particularly of the femorotibial joint. Knee joint kinematics after TKA, including the range of motion (ROM) and the physical performance, are also influenced by the biomechanical properties of the patella. Surgeons sometimes report complications after TKA involvinganterior knee pain, patellofemoral impingement and instability. However, only few studies have focused specially on the patella. Because the patella bone is small and overlapped with the femoral component on scan images. In addition, the patellar component in TKA is made of x-ray–permeable ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene. It is impossible to radiographically determine the external contour of the patellar component precisely. No methods have been established to date to track the dynamic in vivo trajectory of the patella component. In this study, we analyzed the in vivo three-dimensional kinematics of the patellar component in TKA by applying our image matching method with image correlations.

During total knee replacement (TKR), knee surgical navigation systems (KSNS) report in real time relative motion data between the tibia and the femur from the patient under anaesthesia, in order to identify best possible locations for the corresponding prosthesis components. These systems are meant to support the surgeon for achieving the best possible replication of natural knee motion, compatible with the prosthesis design and the joint status, in the hope that this kinematics under passive condition will be then the same during the daily living activities of the patient. Particularly, by means of KSNS, knee kinematics is tracked in the original arthritic joint at the beginning of the operation, intra-operatively after adjustments of bone cuts and trial components implantation, and after final components implantation and cementation. Rarely the extent to which the kinematics in the latter condition is then replicated during activity is analysed. As for the assessment of the active motion performance, the most accurate technique for the in-vivo measurements of replaced joint kinematics is three-dimensional video-fluoroscopy. This allows joint motion tracking under typical movements and loads of daily living. The general aim of this study is assessing the capability of the current KSNS to predict replaced joint motion after TKR. Particularly, the specific objective is to compare, for a number of patients implanted with two different TKR prosthesis component designs, knee kinematics obtained intra-operatively after final component implantation measured by means of KSNS with that assessed post-operatively at the follow-up by means of three-dimensional video-fluoroscopy.

Thirty-one patients affected by primary gonarthrosis were implanted with a fixed bearing posterior-stabilized TKR design, either the Journey® (JOU; Smith&Nephew, London, UK) or the NRG® (Stryker®-Orthopaedics, Mahwah, NJ-USA). All implantations were performed by means of a KSNS (Stryker®-Leibinger, Freiburg, Germany), utilised to track and store joint kinematics intra-operatively immediately after final component implantation (INTRA-OP). Six months after TKR, the patients were followed for clinical assessment and three-dimensional video fluoroscopy (POST-OP). Fifteen of these patients, 8 with the JOU and 7 with the NRG, gave informed consent and these were analyzed. At surgery (INTRA-OP), a spatial tracker of the navigation system was attached through two bi-cortical 3 mm thick Kirschner wires to the distal femur and another to the proximal tibia. The conventional navigation procedure recommended in the system manual was performed to calculate the preoperative deformity including the preoperative lower limb alignment, to perform the femoral and tibial bone cuts, and to measure the final lower limb alignment. All these assessment were calculated with respect to the initial anatomical survey, the latter being based on calibrations of anatomical landmarks by an instrumented pointer. Patients were then analysed (POST-OP) by three-dimensional video-fluoroscopy (digital remote-controlled diagnostic Alpha90SX16; CAT Medical System, Rome-Italy) at 10 frames per second during chair rising-sitting, stair climbing, and step up-down. A technique based on CAD-model shape matching was utilised for obtaining three-dimensional pose of the prosthesis components. Between the two techniques, the kinematics variables analysed for the comparison were the three components of the joint rotation (being the relative motion between the tibial and femoral components represented using a standard joint convention, the translation of the line through the medial and lateral contact points (being these points assumed to be where the minimum distance between the femoral condyles and the tibial baseplate is observed) on the tibial baseplate and the corresponding pivot point, and the location of the instantaneous helical axes with the corresponding mean helical axis and pivot point.

In all patients and in both conditions, physiological ranges of flexion (from −5° to 120°), and ab-adduction (±5°) were observed. Internal-external rotation patterns are different between the two prostheses, with a more central pivoting in NRG and medial pivoting in JOU, as expected by the design. Restoration of knee joint normal kinematics was demonstrated also by the coupling of the internal rotation with flexion, as well as by the roll-back and screw-home mechanisms, observed somehow both in INTRA- and POST-OP measurements. Location of the mean helical axis and pivot point, both from the contact lines and helical axes, were very consistent over time, i.e. after six months from intervention and in fully different conditions. Only one JOU and one NRG patient had the pivot point location POST-OP different from that INTRA-OP, despite cases of paradoxical translation.

In all TKR knees analysed, a good restoration of normal joint motion was observed, both during operation and at the follow-up. This supports the general efficacy of the surgery and of both prosthesis designs. Particularly, the results here reported show a good consistency of the measurements over time, no matter these were taken in very different joint conditions and by means of very different techniques. Intra-operative kinematics therefore does matter, and must be taken into careful consideration for the implantation of the prosthesis components. Joint kinematics should be tracked accurately during TKR surgery, and for this purpose KSNS seem to offer a very good support. These systems not only supports in real time the best possible alignment of the prosthesis components, but also make a reliable prediction of the motion performance of the replaced joint. Additional analyses will be necessary to support this with a statistical power, and to identify the most predicting parameters among the many kinematics variables here analysed preliminarily.

Purpose

As human soft tissue is anisotropic, non-linear and inhomogeneous, its properties are difficult to characterize. Different methods have been described that are either based on contact or noncontact protocols. In this study, three-dimensional (3D) digital image correlation (DIC) was adopted to examine the mechanical behaviour of the human Achilles tendon. Despite its wide use in engineering research and its great potential for strain and displacement measurements in biological tissue, the reported biomedical applications are rather limited. To our knowledge, no validation of 3D DIC measurement on human tendon tissue exists.

The first goal of this study was to determine the feasibility to evaluate the mechanical properties of the human Achilles tendon under uniaxial loading conditions with 3D Digital Image Correlation. The second goal was to compare the accuracy and reproducibility of the 3D DIC against two linear variable differential transformer (LVDT's).

Identifying knee osteoarthritis (OA) patient phenotypes is relevant to assessing treatment efficacy, yet biomechanical variability has not been applied to phenotyping. This study aimed to identify demographic and gait related groups (clusters) among total knee arthroplasty (TKA) candidates, and examine inter-cluster differences in gait feature improvement post-TKA. Knee OA patients scheduled for TKA underwent three-dimensional gait analysis one-week pre and one-year post-TKA, capturing lower-limb external ground reaction forces and kinematics using a force platform and optoelectronic motion capture. Principal component analysis was applied to frontal and sagittal knee angle and moment waveforms (n=135 pre-TKA, n=106 post-TKA), resulting in a new uncorrelated dataset of subject PCscores and PC vectors, describing major modes of variability throughout one gait cycle (0–100%). Demographics (age, gender, body mass index (BMI), gait speed), and gait angle and moment PCscores were standardized and assessed for outliers. One patient exceeding Tukey's outer (3IQR) fence was removed. Two-dimensional multidimensional scaling followed by k-medoids clustering was applied to scaled demographics and pre-TKA PCscores [134×15]. Number of clusters (k=2:10) were assessed by silhouette coefficients, s, and stability by Adjusted Rand Indices (ARI) of 100 data subsets. Clusters were validated by examining inter-cluster differences at baseline, and inter-cluster gait changes (PostPCscore–PrePCscore, n=105) by k-way ANOVA and Tukey's honestly significant difference (HSD) criterion. Four (k=4) TKA candidate groups yielded optimum clustering metrics (s = 0.4, ARI=0.75). Cluster 1 was all-males (male:female=19:0) who walked with faster gait speeds (1>2,3), larger flexion angle magnitudes and stance-phase angle range (PC1 & PC4 1>2,3,4), and more flexion (PC2 1>2,3,4) and adduction moment (PC2 & PC3 1>2,3) range patterns. Cluster 1 had the most dynamic kinematics and kinetic loading/unloading range amongst the clusters, representing a higher-functioning (less “stiff”) male subset. Cluster 2 captured older (2>1,3) males (31:1) with slower gait speeds (2 4), and lower flexion angle magnitude (PC1 3 2,3) and less stiff kinematic and kinetic patterns relative to Clusters 2 and 3, representing a higher-functioning female subset. Radiographic severity did not differ between clusters (Kellgren-Lawrence Grade, p=0.9, n=102), and after removing demographics and re-clustering, gender differences remained (p < 0 .04). Pre-TKA, higher-functioning clusters (1&4) had more dynamic loading/un-loading kinetic patterns. Post-TKA, high-functioning clusters experienced less gait improvement (flexion angle PC2, 1,4 < 3, p≥0.004, flexion moment PC2, 4 < 2,3), with some sagittal range patterns decreasing postoperatively. TKA candidates can be characterized by four clusters, differing by demographics and biomechanical severity features. Post-TKA, functional gains were cluster-specific, stiff-gait clusters experienced more improvement, while higher-functioning clusters experienced less gain and showed some decline. Results suggest the presence of cohorts who may not benefit functionally from TKA. Cluster profiling may support triaging and developing targeted OA treatment strategies, meeting individual function needs

The literature indicates that femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) patients do not return to the level of controls (CTRL) following surgery. The purpose of this study was to compare hip biomechanics during stair climbing tasks in FAI patients before and two years after undergoing corrective surgery against healthy controls (CTRL). A total of 27 participants were included in this study. All participants underwent CT imaging at the local hospital, followed by three-dimensional motion analysis done at the human motion biomechanics laboratory at the local university. Participants who presented a cam deformity >50.5° in the oblique-axial or >60° in the radial planes, respectively, and who had a positive impingement test were placed in the FAI group (n=11, age=34.1±7.4 years, BMI=25.4±2.7 kg/m2). The remaining participants had no cam deformity and negative impingement test and were placed in the CTRL group (n=16, age=33.2±6.4 years, BMI=26.3±3.2 kg/m2). The CTRL group completed the biomechanics protocol once, whereas the FAI group completed the protocol twice, once prior to undergoing corrective surgery for the cam FAI, and the second time at approximately two years following surgery. At the human motion biomechanics laboratory, participants were outfitted with 45 retroreflective markers placed according to the UOMAM marker set. Participants completed five trials of stairs task on a three step instrumented stair case to measure ground reaction forces while 10 Vicon MX-13 cameras recorded the marker trajectories. Data was processed using Nexus software and divided into stair ascent and stair descent tasks. The trials were imported into custom written MatLab software to extract peak pelvis and hip kinematics and hip kinetic variables. Non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to determine significant (p < 0.05) differences between the groups. No significant differences occurred during the stair descent task between any of the groups. During the stair ascent task, the CTRL group had significantly greater peak hip flexion angle (Pre-Op=58±7.1°, Post-Op=58.1±6.6°, CTRL=64.1±5.1°) and sagittal hip range of motion (ROM) (Pre-Op=56.7±6.7°, Post-Op=56.3±5.5°, CTRL=61.7±4.2°) than both the pre- and post-operative groups. Pre-operatively, the FAI group had significantly less peak hip adduction angle (Pre-Op=2±4.5°, Post-Op=3.4±4.4°, CTRL=5.5±3.7°) and hip frontal ROM (Pre-Op=9.9±3.4°, Post-Op=11.9±5.4°, CTRL=13.4±2.5°) compared to the CTRL group. No significant differences occurred in the kinetic variables. Our findings are in line with the Rylander and colleagues (2013) who also found that hip sagittal ROM did not improve following corrective surgery. Their study included a mix of cam and pincer-type FAI, and had a mean follow-up of approximately one year. Our cohort included only cam FAI and they had a mean follow-up of approximately two years, indicating with the extra year, the patients still did not show sagittal hip kinematics improvement. In the frontal plane, there was no significant difference between the post-op and the CTRL, indicating that the postoperative FAI reached the level of the CTRLs. This is in line with recent work that indicates a more medialized hip contact force vector following surgery, suggesting better hip stabilization

Introduction. MERA Quest Knee System (Quest Knee) is a posterior cruciate ligament–retaining prosthesis considering the anatomical features and lifestyles of the Japanese. As for the anatomical features, we reduced the size of prosthesis and set a smaller interval of sizes because Japanese knees are smaller and flatter than those of Caucasians. As for the lifestyles, we evaluated in vivo patellar tracking during deep knee flexion and the condylar geometry in the axial plane of magnetic resonance imaging. It was found that the patella sank deeply into the intercondylar notch and that the articular surface of the lateral condyle began to curve steeply. We adopted this shape and engraved the lateral condyle deep to reduce the pressure of the patellofemoral joint and to get better range of motion (ROM). For the contact pressure rise in the femorotibial joint by engraving the lateral condyle, the insert was suited to the shape of the femoral component. Furthermore, we increased the thickness of the posterior flange of the femoral component and changed the posterior radius of curvature gradually, and this shape allowed the flexion of 155°. We have used Quest Knee for clinical applications from October 2009. We studied the short-term results of Quest Knee. Methods. Between June 2010 and July 2013, the same senior surgeon performed 59 consecutive primary operations with Quest Knee. Forty patients (44 knees) were women, and 14 patients (15 knees) were men. The mean patient age was 72.5 years (range, 59–89 years). All were osteoarthritis knees. Coronal deformity was varus in 58 knees and valgus in one knee. All operations were performed with a measured resection technique, and all patellae were resurfaced. Clinical evaluations were assessed using the Japanese Orthopaedic Association knee rating score (JOA score), and clinical ROM and standing femorotibial angle (FTA) were measured. Additionally, three-dimensional motion analysis of the patellar component during squatting was performed by the image matching method with image correlations. Results. The mean follow-up period was 17.4 months (range, 6–43 months). The JOA score at preoperative and follow-up were 57.5 ± 10.1 and 87.5 ± 5.6 points, respectively (P < 0.0001) (Fig. 1). The ROM at preoperative and follow-up were 127.4 ± 11.1 and 126.2 ± 9.0° (P = 0.47) (Fig. 2). The mean FTA at preoperative and follow-up were 184.2 and 172.3°. With regard to the three-dimensional motion analysis, the patella showed lateral shift during squatting (Fig. 3). Discussion. As for the patellofemoral contact pressure at flexion in total knee arthroplasty, a biomechanical study has reported that the pressures of posterior cruciate ligament–retaining and posterior-stabilized knees were 3.2 and 2.8 times as much as the body weight. This report suggests that the reduction of the pressure of the patellofemoral joint during deep knee flexion results in better ROM. We suppose that Quest Knee reduced the pressure, led the patella to the lateral side, and achieved better ROM. Conclusions. Short-term results of Quest Knee were good. More detailed studies are needed to get better function and long-term durability

The position of the pelvis has been shown to influence acetabular orientation. However there have been no studies quantifying that effect on the native acetabulum. Our aims were to investigate whether it is possible to quantify the relationship between pelvic tilt and acetabular orientation in native hips, and whether pelvic tilt affects acetabular cover of the femoral head. Computerized tomography scans of 93 hips (36 normal, 31 dysplastic and 26 with acetabular retroversion) were analyzed. We used a CT technique that allows standardised three-dimensional (3D) analysis of acetabular inclination and anteversion and calculation of femoral head cover in relation to the anterior pelvic plane and at different degrees of forward and backward tilt. Acetabular anteversion, inclination and cover of the femoral head were measured at pelvic tilt angles ranging from −20° to 20° in relation to the anterior pelvic plane using 5° increments. The effect of pelvic tilt on version was similar in the normal, dysplastic and retroverted groups, with a drop in anteversion ranging from 2.5° to 5° for every 5° of forward tilt. The effect on inclination was less marked and varied among the three groups. Pelvic tilt increased femoral head cover in both normal and dysplastic hips. The effect was less marked, and tended to be negligible at higher positive tilt angles, in the retroverted group. This study has provided benchmark data on how pelvic tilt affects various acetabular parameters which in turn may be helpful in promoting greater understanding of acetabular abnormalities and how pelvic tilt affects the interpretation of pelvic radiographs