Abstract
Navigation has shown to improve limb and component alignment during total knee arthroplasty (TKA). However, most navigation systems involve bulky and expensive hardware, increased operative time and cost. A novel hand-held image-free navigation device has been recently approved with the aim to reduce inventory, cost and surgical time with its small size and quick registration features. We aimed to determine limb and component alignment and validate the accuracy of the iPod based navigation system.
Intraoperative navigation data for proximal tibia and distal femur cuts, femoral component rotation, limb alignment and component alignment in routine imageless navigation system (Ci Navigation, Brainlab) was compared with the novel iPod-based hand-held navigation system (DASH, Smith & Nephew) in 20 TKAs. Postoperative full-length hip-to-ankle and lateral radiographs were evaluated to measure the hip-knee-ankle (HKA) angle and coronal and sagittal alignment of the femoral and tibial component.
The iPod-based navigation system showed good agreement with the Ci Navigation system for limb alignment, tibial and distal femoral cuts in the majority of the limbs despite its quick registration feature. The iPod-based system is hence a positive step towards making navigation systems for TKA more compact, user-friendly, time and cost-effective.
