Digital versus conventional templating techniques in preoperative planning for total hip arthroplasty.

BACKGROUND The purpose of our investigation was to compare a digital templating system to conventional templating techniques when preoperatively planning for total hip arthroplasty. METHODS We included 18 consecutive patients with primary osteoarthritis undergoing uncemented total hip arthroplasty in our study. At separate sittings, we independently conducted preoperative templating. They performed the templating using hard-copy radiographic films and traditional hard-copy prosthetic overlays on a radiograph view box. They then repeated templating using a digital technique at a computer workstation with specially developed software. We used kappa statistical analysis to evaluate intra-and interobserver variability of both techniques. We also examined correlation of template measurements with final component selection. RESULTS Intra-and interobserver variability was satisfactory for both templating techniques. There was no significant difference in the performance of the 2 techniques in predicting final component selection during surgery. CONCLUSION Digital preoperative templating is as reliable as conventional templating techniques.