Purpose: Soft-tissue tension around the hip joint is related to the incidence of dislocation after total hip arthroplasty (THA), but it remains difficult to quantify the soft-tissue tension during surgery. In this study, a three-dimensional force sensor-instrumented modular femoral head was developed and used to quantify soft-tissue tension during THA. The forces at the hip joint were also calculated using a three-dimensional musculoskeletal computer model to validate the measured forces.
Methods: Soft-tissue tension was investigated by measuring the hip joint forces and directions during intraoperative trialing in four patients through passive range of motion (ROM) from 0° extension to 90° flexion. A musculoskeletal model with THA, which was scaled to one of four patients, was developed. The hip joint forces were calculated under the same motion.
Results: Through the passive ROM, the magnitude of soft-tissue tension was greatest when the hip was extended, decreased with flexion to 34°, and progressively increased to flexion at 90°. The mediolateral force component was relatively constant, but the supero-inferior and anterior-posterior force components changed significantly. Within-individual variations were small during three repeated cycles of measurement, but magnitudes varied significantly among patients. Similar force patterns and magnitudes were calculated by the musculoskeletal model.
Conclusions: This study demonstrates that it is possible to quantify soft-tissue tension and direction during THA with an instrumented head. There was general agreement between the calculated and measured forces in both pattern and magnitude. Including additional subject-specific details would further enhance agreement between the model and measured hip forces.
Keywords: Dislocation; Joint force; Sensor; Soft-tissue tension; Total hip arthroplasty.
© 2023. The Author(s).