Background

Accurate acetabular cup positioning is considered to be essential to prevent postoperative dislocation and improve the long-term outcome of total hip arthroplasty (THA). Recently various devices such as navigation systems and patient-specific guides have been used to ensure the accuracy of acetabular cup positioning.

Background

The femoral head center shift on reduction time in total hip arthroplasty (THA) causes alteration of the muscle tension around the hip joint. Many studies about the shift of the femoral head in the cranio-caudal direction or medio-lateral direction on coronal plane have been reported. It has been known widely that the shift on these directions influence tension of the abductor muscle around the hip joint. Nevertheless few studies about the three-dimensional shift including the antero-posterior direction have been reported.

We usually plan surgery for total hip arthroplasty (THA)using pre-operative X-ray templates. However, the technique provides only two dimensional (2D) images and therefore has limitations for planning three-dimensional (3D) objects. Recently it has become possible to describe 3D images using computer programs that use free down loaded computer software (Hip-op) that enable comparison between 3D templates obtained by computed tomography (CT) and 2D conventional X-ray templates.

Six hip joints in 6 patients (1 male, 5 females; age range at the time of operation, 49–77 years) were evaluated. Five of the patients suffered from secondary osteoarthritis of the hip (secondary OA), while the remaining patient suffered from osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH). All the patients underwent THA using a cement less femoral stem (ANCA-FIT Wright Medical Technology, Arlington, Tennessee, USA). Pre-operative planning was performed using Hip-op software (Rizzoli Institute, Bologna, Italy). After the THA surgery, we carried out a repeat CT scan that was used to analyze stem fitting in the femur.

In all the patients it proved easy to obtain the pre-operative template. In 4 patients, the correct stem size was selected pre-operatively, while in the other 2 patients, the planned stem size was one size smaller than that actually implanted. In the 4 patients in whom the correct stem was selected, 2 had their template correctly assessed by conventional 2D images, 1 patient’s template was one size smaller than the implant, while the remaining patient’s template was two sizes smaller than the implant. In the 2 patients who received implants one size smaller than the CT template, 1 patient had the stem inserted in the virus position while in the other patient a fracture occurred during implantation

Preoperative planning for THA using a CT-based computer templating system proved to be a useful technique for the orthopedic surgeons.