Patient-specific pre-operative planning

1. A method for pre-operative orthopedic planning comprising:

obtaining only a high-resolution knee-joint scan of a patient;

taking a digital photographic image of the patient, wherein the digital image of the patient is taken against a grid surface;

determining a hip rotation center and an ankle rotation center from the digital photographic image;

determining a mechanical axis of the knee joint based on the knee-joint scan and the hip rotation center and ankle rotation center;

preparing an at least two-dimensional image model of the knee joint using the knee-joint scan and the determined mechanical axis; and

preparing a pre-operative surgical plan based on the image model of the knee joint.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein preparing the pre-operative surgical plan further comprises preparing a patient-specific alignment guide.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein preparing the pre-operative surgical plan further comprises selecting an implant for the patient.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the implant is patient-specific.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein obtaining only the high-resolution knee-joint scan of the patient comprises obtaining images having soft tissue anatomy associated with images of a bone or joint.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the patient-specific implant is designed using patient-specific soft tissue information.

7. The method of claim 3 , further comprising, delivering an electronic notification to a surgeon indicating that the pre-operative surgical plan is ready for viewing.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:

viewing the pre-operative surgical plan on a mobile device; and

at least one of editing and approving the pre-operative surgical plan on the mobile device.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising forwarding instructions for fabricating the implant for the patient to a manufacturer.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising comparing the determined hip rotation center and ankle rotation center to anthropometric data from an anthropometric database.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the anthropometric database comprises comparative measurements of human bodies including distances between centers of rotation of knee joints, ankle joints and hip joints of the human bodies.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising comparing the determined hip rotation center and ankle rotation center to diseased bone data from a diseased bone database.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the diseased bone database comprises images and measurements of diseased or deformed bones and bone joints from in-house patient data.

14. A method for pre-operative orthopedic planning comprising:

obtaining a high-resolution scan of a knee joint of a patient;

obtaining a digital photographic image of a hip joint, an ankle joint and the knee joint of the patient in front of a background comprising a grid surface;

marking on the grid surface in the digital photographic image a hip rotation center and an ankle rotation center;

determining a mechanical axis of the knee joint based on the marked-up digital photographic image;

preparing an image model of the knee joint using the high-resolution scan;

showing the mechanical axis of the knee joint on the image model of the knee;

preparing a pre-operative surgical plan based on the image model of the knee joint and the mechanical axis;

delivering an electronic notification indicating that the pre-operative surgical plan is ready for viewing;

viewing the pre-operative surgical plan on a mobile device;

editing the pre-operative surgical plan on the mobile device;

approving the edited pre-operative surgical plan; and

forwarding instructions for fabricating the implant for the patient to a manufacturer.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein obtaining the high-resolution scan of the knee joint of the patient comprises obtaining images having soft tissue anatomy associated with images of a bone or joint, the method further comprising designing a patient-specific implant using patient-specific soft tissue information.

16. The method of claim 14 , further comprising comparing the determined hip rotation center and ankle rotation center to anthropometric data from an anthropometric database or diseased bone data from a diseased bone database.

17. A method for pre-operative orthopedic planning comprising:

obtaining a high-resolution scan of a knee joint of a patient;

obtaining a digital photographic image of a hip joint, an ankle joint and the knee joint of the patient in front of a background comprising a grid surface;

marking on the grid surface in the digital photographic image a hip rotation center and an ankle rotation center;

determining a mechanical axis of the knee joint based on the marked-up digital photographic image;

preparing an image model of the knee joint using the high-resolution scan;

showing the mechanical axis of the knee joint on the image model of the knee; and

preparing a pre-operative surgical plan based on the image model of the knee joint and the mechanical axis;

wherein obtaining the high-resolution scan of the knee joint of the patient comprises obtaining images having soft tissue anatomy associated with images of a bone or joint, the method further comprising designing a patient-specific implant using patient-specific soft tissue information.

18. A method for pre-operative orthopedic planning comprising:

obtaining only a high-resolution knee-joint scan of a patient;

taking a digital photographic image of the patient;

determining a hip rotation center and an ankle rotation center from the digital photographic image;

determining a mechanical axis of the knee joint based on the knee-joint scan and the hip rotation center and ankle rotation center;

preparing an at least two-dimensional image model of the knee joint using the knee-joint scan and the determined mechanical axis;

preparing a pre-operative surgical plan based on the image model of the knee joint; and

comparing the determined hip rotation center and ankle rotation center to anthropometric data from an anthropometric database, wherein the anthropometric database comprises comparative measurements of human bodies including distances between centers of rotation of knee joints, ankle joints and hip joints of the human bodies.