How precise is the identification of the center of the femoral head during total knee arthroplasty?

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Identification of the center of the femoral head in the coronal plane is essential during total knee arthroplasty. We evaluated a new method for localization of the center of the hip, thereby detecting the neutral mechanical axis using inter-femoral head center distances (X) measured from a radiograph. Our proposed method was compared with 3 commonly used methods using landmarks that are estimated to be 2 finger-breaths medial to the anterosuperior iliac spine (method A), 2.5 cm perpendicular to the mid-inguinal point (method I), and 1.5 cm lateral to the femoral artery (method F). METHODS: 114 patients undergoing total knee arthroplasty were prospectively enrolled in the study. Four landmarks were marked and conventional anterior-posterior pelvic radiographs were taken. On the radiograph, the distance between the estimated FHC and the neutral mechanical axis was measured. RESULTS: The median value (mm) of the measured distance was 9 in A, 7 in I, 8.5 in F, and 5 in X. When an error of more than 3° from neutral alignment was defined as an outlier, 15% of measurements in A, 6% of measurements in I, 14% in F, and 2% in X would fall in the outlier zone. INTERPRETATION: The method detecting the neutral mechanical axis using inter-femoral head center distances (X) showed the least variability and the lowest percentage of outliers.