Efficacy of a Pelvic Lateral Positioner With a Mechanical Cup Navigator Based on the Anatomical Pelvic Plane in Total Hip Arthroplasty

The acetabular component orientation in total hip arthroplasty (THA) is of critical importance to the good clinical results. However, traditional widely used cup alignment guides for cup placement are reported to be relatively unreliable. The present study aims at comparing a novel cup alignment guide, which can be attached to our anatomical pelvic plane (APP) pelvic lateral positioner for reducing discrepancies in sagittal pelvic tilt and indicate a targeted cup angle based on the APP, with a conventional cup alignment guide.

The subjects were 136 hips of 136 patients who underwent unilateral THA using the APP positioner. The procedure was performed with the conventional cup alignment guide (conventional group; 60 hips) and with the novel cup navigator (mechanical navigator group; 76 hips). Postoperative cup angles and discrepancies of postoperative cup angles (inclination and anteversion angles) from the targeted angles were compared between the 2 groups to evaluate the usefulness of these navigators.

The mean cup angles in the conventional group were 39.0° ± 5.3° for the inclination angle and 21.7° ± 6.4° for the anteversion angle, whereas those in the mechanical navigator group were 40.6° ± 3.2° and 18.3° ± 4.6°, respectively (P = .018, P < .0001). The discrepancies from the targeted angles were 3.5° ± 3.1° for the inclination angle and 4.6° ± 3.4° for the anteversion angle in the conventional group and 2.3° ± 2.3° and 3.2° ± 2.7°, respectively, in the mechanical navigator group (P = .020, P = .012).

The mechanical cup navigator easily attachable to the APP positioner is a tool that can improve the accuracy of cup placement in a simple, economical, and noninvasive manner in THA via the lateral position.