Biomechanical Guidance System for Periacetabular Osteotomy

This chapter presents a biomechanical guidance navigation system for performing periacetabular osteotomy (PAO) to treat developmental dysplasia of the hip. The main motivation of the biomechanical guidance system (BGS) is to plan and track the osteotomized fragment in real time during PAO while simplifying this challenging procedure. The BGS computes the three-dimensional position of the osteotomized fragment in terms of conventional anatomical angles and simulates biomechanical states of the joint. This chapter describes the BGS structure and its application using two different navigation approaches including optical tracking of the fragment and x-ray-based navigation. Both cadaver studies and preliminary clinical studies showed that the biomechanical planning is consistent with traditional PAO planning techniques and that the additional information provided by accurate 3D positioning of the fragment does not adversely impact the surgery.