Postoperative dislocation following total hip arthroplasty (THA) remains a significant concern with a reported incidence of 1% to 10%. The risk of dislocation is multifactorial and includes both surgeon-related (i.e. implant position, component size, surgical approach) and patient-related factors (i.e. gender, age, preoperative diagnosis, neurologic disorders). While the majority of prior investigations have focused on the importance of acetabular component positioning, recent studies have shown that approximately 60% of “dislocators” following primary THA have an acceptably aligned acetabular component. Therefore, the importance of the relationship between the spine and pelvis, and its impact on functional component position has gained increased attention. Kanawade and Dorr et al. have shown patients can be categorised into having a stiff, normal, or hypermobile pelvis based on their change in pelvic tilt when moving from the standing to seated position. The degree of change in functional position of both the acetabular and femoral components is impacted by the degree of pelvic motion each patient possesses. In the “normal” pelvis, as a patient moves from the standing to seated position the pelvis typically tilts posteriorly, thus increasing the functional anteversion of the acetabular component. However, patients with lumbar degeneration or spine pathology often have a decrease in posterior pelvic tilt in the seated position, thus potentially increasing their risk of dislocation. Bedard et al. noted an 8.3% dislocation risk in patients with a spinopelvic fusion after THA vs. 2.9% in those without. There is the potential that preoperative, dynamic imaging can be used to predict the ideal component position for each individual patient undergoing THA. However, this assumes that a patient's preoperative pelvic motion will be the same following implantation of a total hip prosthesis, and that a patient's pelvic motion will remain consistent over time postoperatively. A recent study has shown that the impact of THA on pelvic motion can be highly variable, thus potentially limiting the utility of preoperative dynamic imaging in predicting a patient's ideal component position. Future investigations must focus on preoperative factors that can be used to predict postoperative pelvic motion and how pelvic motion changes over time following implantation of a total hip arthroplasty

Introduction. One of the known mechanisms which could contribute to the failure of total hip replacements (THR) is edge contact. Failures associated with edge contact include rim damage and lysis due to altered loading and torques. Recent study on four THR patients showed that the inclusion of pelvic motions in a contact model increased the risk of edge contact in some patients. The aim of current study was to determine whether pelvic motions have the same effect on contact location for a larger patient cohort and determine the contribution of each of the pelvic rotations to this effect. Methods. Gait data was acquired from five male and five female unilateral THR patients using a ten camera Vicon system (Oxford Metrics, UK) interfaced with twin force plates (AMTI) and using a CAST marker set. All patients had good surgical outcomes, confirmed by patient-reported outcomes and were considered well-functioning, based on elective walking speed. Joint contact forces and pelvic motions were obtained from the AnyBody modelling system (AnyBody Technologies, DK). Only gait cycle regions with available force plate data were considered. A finite element model of a 32mm head on a featureless hemispherical polyethylene cup, 0.5mm radial clearance, was used to obtain the contact area from the contact force. A bespoke computational tool was used to analyse patients' gait profiles with and without pelvic motions. The risk of edge contact was measured as a “centre proximity angle” between the cup pole and centre of the contact area, and “edge proximity angle” between the cup pole and the furthest contact area point away from the pole. Pelvic tilt, drop and internal-external rotation were considered one at a time and in combinations. Results. In eight out of 10 patients, the addition of pelvic motions decreased the risk of edge contact during toe-off. There was up to 6° reduction in the proximity angles when pelvic motions were introduced to the gait cycle. In six out of 10 patients, the addition of pelvic motions resulted in an increase in the risk of edge contact during heel-strike with up to 6° increase in the proximity angles. For all patients where these effects were seen, sagittal pelvic tilt was a substantial contributor. Conclusion. The results of this study suggest that pelvic motion play an important role in contact location in THR bearings during loading phase. Both static and dynamic pelvic tilt contribute to the variability in the risk of edge contact. Further tests on larger patient cohorts are required to confirm the trends observed. The outcomes of this study suggest that pre-clinical mechanical and tribological testing of THRs should consider the role of pelvic motion. The outcomes also have implications for establishing surgical positioning safe zones, which are currently based only on risk of dislocation and severe impingement

Introduction. The functional ante-inclination (AI) of the cup after total hip arthroplasty (THA) is a key component in the combined sagittal index (CSI) to predict joint stability after THA. To accurately predict AI, we deducted a mathematic algorithm between the radiographic anteversion (RA), radiographic inclincation (RI), pelvic tilting (PT), and AI. The current study aims (1) to validate the mathematic algorithm; (2) to convert the AI limits in the CSI index (standing AI ≤ 45°, sitting AI ≥ 41°) into coronal functional safe zone (CFSZ) and explore the influences of the stand-to-sit pelvic motion (PM) and pelvic incidence (PI) on CFSZ; (3) to locate a universal cup orientation that always fulfill the AI criteria of CSI safe zone for all patients or subgroups of PM(PM ≤ 10°, 10° < PM ≤ 30°, and PM > 30°) and PI (PI≤ 41°, 41°< PI ≤ 62°, and PI >62°), respectively. Methods. A 3D printed phantom pelvic model was designed to simulate changing PT values. An acetabular cup was implanted with different RA, RI, and PT settings using robot assisted technique. We enrolled 100 consecutive patients who underwent robot assisted THA from April, 2019 to June, 2019 in our hospital. EOS images before THA and at 6-month follow-up were collected. AI angles were measured on the lateral view radiographs as the reference method. Mean absolute error (MAE), Bland-Altman analysis and linear regression were conducted to assess the accuracy of the AI algorithm for both the phantom and patient radiographic studies. The 100 patients were classified into three subgroups by PM and PI, respectively. Linear regression and ANOVA analysis were conducted to explore the relationship between the size of CFSZ, and PM and PI, respectively. Intersection of the CFSZ was conducted to identify if any universal cup orientation (RA, RI) existed for the CSI index. Results. The mathematic algorithm for calculating AI based on RI, RA, and PT is highly accurate according to the phantom and patient radiographic study. CFSZ size corresponds linearly with PM (R² = 0.638) and PI (R² = 0.129), respectively. There are significant differences in the size of CFSZ, as well as in the intersection of CFSZ and LSZ, between the subgroups of PM and PI, respectively (P<0.017). There is no universal cup orientations could be identified to fulfill the AI limits of the CSI index for all the 100 patients or any of the three subgroups, according to either PM or PI. Conclusions. The cup target orientation should be individualized. The validated algorithm between AI and RA, RI, and PT parameters can serve as the quantitative tool for patient-specific optimization of functional cup AI in different postures

INTRODUCTION. Dislocation is one of the most frequent complications in total hip arthroplasty (THA), affecting an estimated 1% to 5% of THA patients. Malposition of the acetabular cup is thought to be a likely contributor. As the field searches for solutions, new experimental methods can help engineers, scientists, and surgeons better understand the problem as well as evaluate novel techniques and products. OBJECTIVES. Create a laboratory simulation to assess patient positioning and pelvic motion during THA. Apply this simulation to assess (1) variation in patient positioning; (2) various methods to identify the pelvic plane via palpated anatomic landmarks. METHODS. A patient surrogate was developed to recreate patient-like modality, palpation, and motion, especially focusing on the spine's influence on pelvic flexion and rotation. Five different registration methods were evaluated (3 supine, 2 lateral decubitus). An ASIS-to-ASIS measurement was always used in calculations. The other axes measured were: 1) supine/trunk; 2) supine/ASIS-to-Pubis; 3) supine/neutral femoral axis; 4) LD/spine; and 5) LD/trunk. Three infrared LED markers were attached to the iliac spine of the surrogate's pelvis and monitored with an Optotrak Certus motion-tracking camera (Northern Digital). A second sensor was mounted to the top of a patient positioner (Innomed) to measure the orientation of the pelvis relative to the positioner. A third sensor was mounted to a set of calipers, which were aligned with anatomic landmarks during registration. To compare results from registration methods, a reference orientation of the pelvis was recorded by digitizing landmarks comprising the anterior pelvic plane (APP). The APP is the plane created by three points: the left ASIS, right ASIS, and midpoint of pubic tubercles. Theoretical pelvic orientation was calculated using these digitized points. The vectors generated from the gross anatomic registration steps were used to calculate the measured orientation of the pelvis compared to theoretical. The rotation, or error, matrix between theoretical and measured pelvic orientations was computed and then projected on an APP coordinate system to translate the error matrix to cup inclination and version. RESULTS. Inter- and intra-operator variability was good for most registration methods. The error in cup orientation when compared to the Lewinnek zone is promising. Of the 92 registrations, 91 (99%) were within the Lewinnek abduction range (30°–50°), 80 (87%) were within the Lewinnek version range (5°–25°), and 79 (85%) were within the range for both. When only considering the supine trunk and ASIS-pubis registrations, all 37 calculated cup orientations were within the Lewinnek zone. CONCLUSIONS. By aligning an instrument with rigid body markers along two vectors, operators were able to create a patient coordinate system that translated to error of cup inclination and version of only a few degrees from the theoretical target. The laboratory simulation developed in this study will aid scientists and engineers in evaluating novel patient positioning solutions for THA. While further research with more operators and perhaps cadaveric tissue is warranted to confirm these results, there is promise that a simple and intuitive patient registration method may reduce variation in cup placement during THA

Total hip arthroplasty (THA) using minimally invasive surgeries (MIS) now become popular operative procedures. It is not easy to understand geometric information of pelvis and femur in the restricted operative fields during MIS-THA. Recently, THA in supine position comes into the limelight again to place acetabular cups in an optimum position because we can minimise the intra-operative pelvic motion during THA in supine position. To verify the usefulness of supine position, we measured the angels of acetabular trial cups intra-operatively using the CT-based navigation system. The trial cup positions were placed according to a conventional acetabular cup alignment guide. We compared the angles of acetabular trial cups between supine and lateral positions through the same MIS antero-lateral (AL) surgical approach. Thirty eight hips underwent THA in lateral position (the AL group; average age: 63.9 years old, female: 29 cases, 33 hips, male: 5 cases, 5 hips) and 40 hips underwent THA in supine position (the AL Supine group; average age: 62.2 years old, female 40 cases, 40 hips) were subjected in this study. The single surgeon (the first author) performed all surgeries. We used the Roettinger's modified Watson-Jones approach in both groups. The pelvic registration for navigation was carried out using the CT-fluoro matching procedure with VectorVision Hip (BrainLAB, Germany). After acetabular reaming, the acetabular trial cups were placed into the reamed acetabulum to be at 45 degrees of operative inclination (OI) and at 20 degrees of operative anteversion (OA) using a conventional acetabular cup alignment guide. These angles of the trial cups were measured intra-operatively using the CT-based navigation system, VectorVision Hip. After removing the acetabular trial cup, the acetabular cups were placed using the navigation system. Trilogy cups (Zimmer, USA) and AMS HA shells (JMM, Japan) were used in this study. The average angles of OI were 45.7 degrees (SD 5.5 degrees) in the AL group and 46.3 degrees (SD 4.6 degrees) in the AL Supine group. The average angles of OA were 30.0 degrees (SD 13.5 degrees) in the AL group and 23.5 degrees (SD 8.2 degrees) in the AL Supine group. The hip numbers whose errors were less than 10 degrees were 13 hips in the AL group and 26 hips in the AL Supine group, respectively. There was significant difference in hip numbers whose errors of angles were less than 10 degrees between the AL and Supine groups. The hip numbers whose errors were less than 5 degrees were 7 hips in the AL group and only 6 hips in the AL Supine group, respectively. There was no significant difference in hip numbers whose errors of angles were less than 5 degrees between the AL and Supine groups. The error values of OI were less than 10 degrees except one hip in both groups. However, the error values of 25 hips in the AL group were more than 10 degrees. In lateral position, the pelvis easily rotated when the affected lower extremity was extended, externally rotated, and adducted during the femoral preparation in the AL group, which resulted in malalignment of acetabular OA. In contrast, most hips could be set with the error values less than 10 degrees in the AL Supine position because the pelvis could be stabilised on the operative table. In addition, landmarks, such as bilateral antero-superior iliac spines and the symphysis pubis, were palpable in supine position. However, the hips with error values less than 5 degrees were only 6 out of 40 hips even though in supine position. Using MIS techniques, we can provide more stable hip joint just after surgery since the muscles surrounding hip joints can be preserved. We have to place acetabular cups in an optimum position to achieve wide range of hip motion to prevent dislocation and to provide limitation-free daily activities for patients. These data suggests that we should use more accurate guide systems for acetabular cup replacement such as navigation systems, patient specific templates, and patient specific mechanical instruments to place acetabular cups in an optimum position