Purpose of the study: The anterior rim of the arthroplasty cup can overhang the bone in certain situations: oversized cup, insufficient anteversion, insufficient ace-tabular reaming, cylindrospherical reaming overriding the acetabular opening. The straight or concave shape of the anterior wall of the acetabulum also affects prosthetic overhang. The purpose of this anatomic study was to use a navigation system to quantify, in vitro, the height of the iliopubic psoas notch.

Material and methods: Sixty-eight acetabuli from 34 cadaver pelvi free of osteoarthritis (13 male and 21 female) were analyzed using the Stryker™ hip navigation system. Morphological data were collected for mathematical processing which defined the diameter and the center of the articular surface.

Results: Considerable intra- and inter-individual differences in the shape of the acetabular rim were noted and quantified, particularly concerning the psoas notch. When the lateral view of the acetabular rim is projected onto a plane it produces a succession of three summits and three valleys explaining the difficulty encountered in obtaining a precise mean plane for the acetabular opening.

Discussion: More or less pronounced protrusion of the cup could explain potentially painful anterior impingement of the psoas, especially for certain types of acetabular morphology.

Aims: For planning of Total Hip Arthroplasties (THA) plain X-rays of the pelvis in anterior posterior orientation are used. New methods such as CT scans and intraoperative digitization with navigation devices introduce the third dimension into orthopaedic planning. In order to compare measurements derived from three-dimensional data-acquisition with standard pelvic measurements it is important to estimate the underlying variances of those standards. Methods: 120 patients were investigated and subdivided in 4 groups depending of their age or the condition of their hip joints. The patients were positioned in a supine position on a table and in a standing position. Three landmarks at the patientñs pelvis (left and right anterior superior iliac spine (ASIS) and the pubic tubercle (PT)) were percutaneously digitized with a digitizing arm (Micro-Scribe-3DX, Vizion, Glendale, CA). The pelvic positions in space were calculated in relation to the horizontal and the vertical plane. Results: Despite the anatomical deþnition (0¡), we found an inclination of 4-6¡. There is no signiþcant difference between supine and standing position and no signiþcant difference between the groups and no diffenrence between genders. All patients lyed ßat in supine position without special positioning effort Conclusions: The pelvis orientation ist very stable in standing as well in supine position no matter if the patient is old or young, has coxarthrosis ore none or a THA. Therefore it can be concluded that our knowledge derived from measurements of planar a.-p.x-rays is not inßuenced by a massive variance in pelvic positions