As Information Technology (IT) and Engineering advances are becoming widely available, other scientific disciplines are taking advantage of them. Especially, medicine can benefit greatly from applications of IT or Engineering or their combination. Nevertheless, medical professionals lack the required IT-expertise and training. This fact poses several problems, both in the initial acceptance of novel technologies and their subsequent efficient use. This work presents an IT system, as applied to Total Hip Arthroplasty (THA)preoperative planning. The system is designed to provide insight to the patient's anatomy, as well as assist the operating surgeon with the selection, design and fitting of orthopedic implants. Furthermore, special care has been given to ease of use and hiding the complexities involved when cross discipline expertise is required.
This study assessed the effectiveness of the combined use of computed tomography (CT) and computeraided design (CAD) in the preoperative evaluation and implant selection in 20 patients (20 hips) with congenital dislocation of the hip who were scheduled to undergo total hip arthroplasty. Computerized selection of the femoral implant with optimum fit and fill was made after a three-dimensional reconstruction of the femoral canal using CT data and CAD. Implantation of all sizes of 5 noncemented and 2 cemented femoral implants was simulated using CATIA software (IBM, Kingstone, NY). When patients underwent surgery, 1 8 of 20 preselected prostheses agreed by type and size with the prostheses implanted. The remaining 2 preselected implants agreed by type only. In patients with dislocated and dyspJastic hips, combined use of CT and CAD allows effective preoperative planning by providing the surgeon with vital information about the proximal femoral canal geometry and the possible femoral implant with optimum fit and fill to be used.
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