TILTING OF FEMORAL CANAL IN THE AXIAL PLANE – CAN IT BE A FACTOR FOR SURGEON’S CONSIDERATION DURING PLANNING AND EVALUATING A ROBOTIC THA?

Abstract

For radiographic assessment of THA, we must estimate a 3-D structure with 2-D images. Basically, it has been good. But even after a successful surgery, sometimes we encountered an undersized stem in radiograph. Interestingly, it was more frequent after we introduced surgical robot for primary THA. It sometimes brought a huge dilemma during planning and evaluating the surgery. We performed this study to elucidate the cause of this problem.

We used image data of 30 consecutive THAs using ROBODOC (ISS, USA). The measurement was made with the built-in tool in the Orthodoc, which is for the CT-based preoperative planning, and digital imaging system (PiView, Infinitt, Korea). We measured femoral anteversion, tilting angle at corresponding level, the longest and shortest diameters of femoral canal and their ratio. Also we measured anteversion and alignment of the stem. The canal filling of the stem was measured in projected images with CT and postoperative radiographs.

The mean femoral anteversion was 21.1±10.2°. The canal tiling angle was 39.3±7.9°(p< 0.01). The long and short diameters were 19.3±2.6° and 14.3±1.8°. The mean ratio between them was 0.8±0.08°. Canal filling at AP and lateral dimensions were 88.25±9.8% and 85.7±6.9%. In postoperative radiographs, they were 85.4±7.3%(p=0.05) and 88.0±6.1%(p=0.06).

This result suggests that the femoral canal at this particular or more distal level is elliptically shaped constantly. It tilts (in axial plane) to the same direction but not to the same degrees with femoral anteversion. Because of this tilt, relatively well-fixed round femoral stem can be considered as undersized in plane radiograph. Therefore, rather than using two plain radiographs alone for postoperative evaluation, adding postoperative CT may provide appropriate accuracy for assessment. And surgeon should keep in mind this axial tilt during planning and evaluating a robotic THA, especially not to remove too much healthy cortical bones to obtain full distal filling.