Although the most commonly used method of femoral component alignment in total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is an intramedullary (IM) guides, this method demonstrated a limited degree of accuracy. The purpose of this study was to assess whether a portable, accelerometer-based surgical navigation system (Knee Align 2 system; Orth Align, Inc, Aliso Viejo, Calif) improve accuracy of the post-operative radiographic femoral component alignment compared to conventional IM alignment guide. Since February 2014, 44 consecutive patients (39 female, 5 male) with primary arthritis of the knee were enrolled in this prospective, randomized controlled study. 24 patients underwent TKA (Vanguard RP or PS, Biomet Japan) using the navigation device for the distal femoral resection (Navigated Group), and 20 patients with conventional femoral IM alignment guide. The proximal tibial resection was performed using an extramedullary guide. All the operation was performed by a single senior surgeon (YK) with the same gap balancing technique except for the use of the navigation system for the femur. Accuracy of femoral implant positioning was evaluated on 2 weeks postoperative standing anteroposterior (AP) hip to ankle radiographs.INTRODUCTION
MATERIALS & METHODS
