Description of anatomic coordinate systems and rationale for use in an image-guided total hip replacement system

Abstract

Lowering the risks of a surgical procedure is extremely important, especially for high-volume procedures such as total hip replacement. Significant work has been done to study total hip replacement procedures and provide the surgeon with techniques and tools to achieve better patient outcomes. Computer-assisted intervention allows surgeons to “close the loop” in medical research, allowing the surgeon to preoperatively plan, interoperatively navigate, and postoperatively analyze medical procedures, then use the results to repeat or improve the quality of future procedures. In order to expedite the cycle of planning, execution, and analysis amoung multiple research groups, standards for description, measurement, and procedure are necessary. In this work, the authors preset the coordinate systems used in their suite of computer-based tools for planning, executing, and evaluating the total hip replacement procedure. Rationales for the choices of each system are given along with experimental data which support the definitions.