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Inconsistent calibration ball placement leads to inaccurate prosthesis size, offset
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Although preoperative templating may be a useful part of formal preoperative planning for total hip arthroplasty surgery, inconsistent calibration ball placement causes inaccurate prosthesis size, leg length and offset and cannot be relied on during surgery, according to study results.
Researchers used the Picture Archiving and Communication Systems service to review 112 total hip arthroplasty cases that had involved preoperative templating with the placement of a calibration ball.
After calibrating the templating system from the ball, the researchers made a template of the femoral head size of the implant and compared it to known prosthetic head size.
Study results showed a variation between observers at a median interobserver error of 0.92% and a mean of 0.88%. Researchers also found a variation for median intra-observer error of 0.36% and a mean of 0.51%. There was a trend of underestimating the actual head size with the template head size, but no trend was observed relating to percentage error and actual head size used, according to the researchers.
Overall, an undersized template head size was suggested in 63.4% of cases.
The creation of a technique that provides a consistent form of calibration may help accurately form a template for component size, the researchers concluded.
Disclosure: The authors have no relevant financial disclosures.
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