Extra-Medullary Computer-Assisted Total Knee Replacement: Towards Lesser Invasive Surgery

Modern total knee replacement has emerged as one of the most successful and reproducible surgical procedures performed today [26,41]. Much of this success has been due to the advances made with improved instrumentation with an understanding of the importance of restoring normal alignment of the mechanical axis of the knee [1,12,13,15, 22, 29, 36, 46]. However, even with modern intra-medullary alignment systems there is still variability in the overall results achieved. There is further continued concern about fat embolization with intra-medullary techniques. Computer-assisted extra-medullary techniques offer the opportunity for improved accuracy and reproducibility while avoiding instrumenting the intramedullary canal. As total knee replacement continues to evolve with minimally invasive surgery, the incorporation of computer-assisted techniques has the potential to allow the surgeon to continue to place the knee components accurately with less trauma to the patient.