Use of slide presentation software as a tool to measure hip arthroplasty wear

The authors propose a manual measurement method for wear in total hip arthroplasty (PowerPoint method) based on the well-known Microsoft PowerPoint software (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Wash). In addition, the accuracy and reproducibility of the devised method were quantified and compared with two methods previously described by Livermore and Dorr, and accuracies were determined at different degrees of wear. The 57 hips recruited were allocated to: class 1 (retrieval series), class 2 (clinical series), and class 3 (a repeat film analysis series). The PowerPoint method was found to have good reproducibility and to better detect wear differences between classes. The devised method can be easily used for recording wear at follow-up visits and could be used as a supplementary method when computerized methods cannot be employed.