Innovative Approaches in Computer-Assisted Surgery

Total knee replacement (TKR) is a common orthopaedic surgical intervention and includes the removal of bone sections from the end of the femur and the top of the tibia for replacement by prosthetic components. Pain relief and functional improvement are predictable clinical results. But the accuracy of the alignment affects the surgical outcome and the longevity of the prosthesis. Hence, current total knee implantation systems attempt to align the knee joint in the mechanical axis for placement of the total knee components. These approaches use templates and plain radiographs for preoperative planning and alignment devices for bone cuts. To overcome the inherent inaccuracy of the presently used systems a computer-assisted planning system has been developed delivering the necessary control data for the intraoperative surgical robot system.