With everyday movements keeping it in almost constant use, the hip joint is one of the most stressed joints in our body. One common hip disorder that often requires surgical intervention is osteoarthritis in which the joint's cartilage is damaged, causing severe pain and disability.

Fortunately, today a diseased hip joint can be routinely replaced with an artificial joint, such as a hip resurfacing or total hip implant, which relieves stiffness and pain, and allows normal movement. Even though hip resurfacing and total hip replacement (THR) are considered highly successful and reliable orthopedic operations, surgeons face several intra-operative challenges, such as optimal implant positioning and avoiding leg length discrepancies or intra-operative fractures.

Brainlab offers technologies that are widely used in the field of computer assisted surgery (CAS) to aid your doctor during the different treatment phases.

Computer-Assisted Hip Resurfacing

Hip resurfacing is a surgical procedure that has been developed as an alternative to total hip replacement. It may allow younger and more active people to return to any activities they enjoyed previous to their hip problems which is an advantage over a traditional hip replacement.

Further potential advantages of hip resurfacing include:

• Less bone removal (bone preservation) since only the surface is “reshaped”
• Potentially lower risk of hip dislocations due to a relatively larger femoral head size
• Better range of motion

The main challenge of a hip resurfacing operation is a femoral neck fracture, which would make it necessary to convert the hip resurfacing to a total hip replacement.

Computer-assisted hip resurfacing helps the surgeon to overcome these challenges of implant mal-positioning with the ability to continuously track surgical instruments, and virtually plan and guide the proper positioning and alignment of the new components.

Computer-Assisted Total Hip Replacement (THR)

For decades, total hip replacement is one of the most widely applied reconstructive orthopedic procedures worldwide, and has proven remarkably successful in restoring function and eliminating pain in patients  suffering degenerative hip diseases such as arthritis.

However, this surgery is also associated with surgical challenges such as accurate and reproducible component positioning. Mal-positioning of the implant components, in particular during minimally invasive surgeries where the surgeon has limited exposure to the relevant anatomy, may lead to:

• Early joint dislocation
• Limited range of motion
• Early implant wear
• Leg length discrepancies

Hip navigation is a proven tool to overcome the challenges of accuracy and reproducibility in standard and minimally-invasive hip replacement surgery, and helps your surgeon to:

• Improve positioning of the implant components
• Avoid leg length discrepancies
• Improve the functionality of your new hip joint

Patient Resources

Find a hip specialist
Discuss the different treatment options with your physician. Ask him/her to present the advantages and disadvantages, as well as the later side effects, of each different treatment option.

Getting more help
To support you in deciding the best treatment option for you, please also refer to further valuable information sources, such as

• Internet
• Self-support groups
• Non-profit organizations
• Written information material

Take the time to be informed; this is your decision and you need to do what is most beneficial and reassuring for you.