Why is Software-Guided Surgery Performed?
Software-guided surgery for hip joint replacement offers many benefits to surgeons and their patients:
- Helping accurate restoration of leg length and offset 1,2
- Intra-operative assessment of range of motion 3
- More control during minimally invasive surgery 4
- Supporting accurate positioning of implants 4,5
Surgical navigation systems can help surgeons aim at determining positioning of artificial implants. Accurate positioning of the artificial implants is one of the most critical aspects of hip replacement surgery. Incorrectly aligned implants can lead to increased wear and loosening of the joint replacement.
There are several studies showing that software-guided hip implant cup alignment further supports the surgeon in precision as compared with conventional surgery. The studies also show that software-guided surgery is useful for helping to optimize limb length, range of motion and stability. 4, 5
1 Manzotti A, Cerveri P, De Momi E, Pullen C, Confalonieri N. Does computer assisted surgery benefit leg length restoration in total hip replacement? Navigation versus conventional freehand. Int Orthop. 2011 Jan; 35(1):19-24.
2 Renkawitz T, Schuster T, Grifka J, Kalteis T, Sendtner E. Leg length and offset measures with a pinless femoral reference array during THA. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 2010 Jul; 468(7):1862-8.
3 Renkawitz T, Haimerl M, Dohmen L, Woerner M, Springorum HR, Sendtner E, Heers G, Weber M, Grifka J. Development and evaluation of an image-free computer-assisted impingement detection technique for total hip arthroplasty. Proc Inst Mech Eng H. 2012 Dec;226(12):911-8.
4 Kelley TC, Swank ML. Role of navigation in total hip arthroplasty. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2009 Feb;91 Suppl 1:153-8.
5 Gandhi R, Marchie A, Farrokhyar F, Mahomed N. Computer navigation in total hip replacement: a meta-analysis. Int Orthop. 2009 Jun; 33(3):593-7.
