title: Improved method for planning intramedullary guiding rod entry point in total knee arthroplasty.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To study the accuracy of using the deepest point of the intercondylar notch (DPIN) as a reference point for femoral intramedullary (IM) guiding rod entrance in total knee arthroplasty (TKA) with 3-D reconstruction in Chinese subjects.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 50 normal femurs in 25 Chinese subjects (mean age 25.6 ± 2.9 years; range 18-29 years) were chosen from the lower extremities computed tomography digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM) database for this study. The DICOM data were imported into Mimics 10.0 software. A cylinder (radius = 4 mm; length = 20 cm) was used to simulate ideal insertion of a IM guiding rod into the femoral canal. DPIN was taken as a reference point for calculating the relative position of the rod's entry point.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean rod entry point position in the coronal plane was 2.94 ± 1.12 mm (range 0.79-4.91 mm) medial and 6.01 ± 2.09 mm (range 2.49-9.51 mm) anterior to the DPIN, with no significant difference between sides. All potential angle errors were below 2°.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of this study show that the DPIN can serve as a reference for surgeons using an IM guide system in TKA.
authors: Norman Bethune Medical School, Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin, China.
authors: Jianlin
authors: J
authors: Xiao
authors: Chenyu
authors: C
authors: Wang
authors: Lanyu
authors: L
authors: Zhu
authors: Xuezhou
authors: X
authors: Li
authors: Tong
authors: T
authors: Liu
authors: Qingyu
authors: Q
authors: Wang
authors: Yanguo
authors: Y
authors: Qin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D019645:Arthroplasty, Replacement, Knee / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D005269:Femur / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000601:surgery; D005594:Fracture Fixation, Intramedullary; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008297:Male; D008953:Models, Anatomic; D010027:Osteotomy / Q000379:methods*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D055815:Young Adult