Navigated placement of pelvic implant based on combined anteversion by applying Ranawat's sign or via arithmetic formula

1. A method for placing a pelvic implant in a patient, said pelvic implant including a cup having a predetermined cup component and a femoral stem having a predetermined stem component, comprising:

obtaining image data corresponding to the cup and femoral stem;

using the image data to display a geometrical relationship between the cup and the femoral stem corresponding to a location of the cup and femoral stem in the patient;

determining a target combined anteversion for relative orientation of the cup component and the stem component; and

virtually positioning at least one of the cup within the patient's pelvis or the stem within the patient's femur such that a combined anteversion between the predetermined cup component and the predetermined femoral stem component corresponds to the target combined anteversion, wherein virtually positioning includes determining a geometry of the femoral stem after the cup has been placed in the pelvis.

2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising navigating the cup or femoral stem into position in the patient based on the location of the cup or femoral stem that corresponds to the target combined anteversion.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the cup component is an axis central to an apex of the cup, and the femoral stem component is an axis on a longitudinal centerline of a neck of the femoral stem.

4. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

registering the patient's pelvis and femur in a medical workspace;

obtaining from the registered pelvis and femur a transformation matrix for transferring information regarding the femur to a pelvic coordinate system;

using the transformation matrix to transfer a neck axis to the pelvic coordinate system;

aligning the neck axis through a center of an acetabulum of the pelvis; and

placing the cup component along the neck axis.

5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein registering includes:

placing a leg corresponding to the patient's femur in a neutral orientation;

determining a trajectory of the femur while the leg is in the neutral position; and

storing the trajectory as a zero point for flexion, extension internal rotation, external rotation, abduction or adduction of the femur.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein virtually positioning includes using the formula β anat +0.77* b+α=84.3 to determine an anteversion of the cup component and/or the femoral stem component.

7. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising adjusting geometric features of the stem so as to achieve the target combined anteversion.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein virtually positioning includes determining a location of the cup after virtually placing the femoral stem in the femur.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein virtually positioning at least one of the location of the cup within the pelvis and the location of the stem within the femur includes identifying a cup axis of the cup and a neck axis of the femoral stem, and placing an anteversion of the cup axis dependent on an anteversion of the neck axis, or placing an anteversion of the neck axis dependent on an anteversion of the cup axis.

10. The method according to claim 9 , further comprising placing the cup component neutral with respect to the femoral stem component.

11. The method according to claim 10 , wherein placing the cup component neutral includes adding anteversion to the cup component.

12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the target combined anteversion is between 30 degrees and 45 degrees.

13. The method according to claim 1 , wherein virtually positioning includes:

predicting a location of an impingement of the pelvic implant; and

selecting a cup placement relative to the predicted impingement locations so as to minimize the occurrence of the impingement.

14. The method according to claim 1 , wherein virtually positioning includes using Ranawat's sign to the planned placement of the cup and the femoral stem to determine an anteversion to be added to a cup axis of the cup or a neck axis of the femoral stem so as to achieve the target combined anteversion.