Measurements Taken Before Surgery
- Before your surgery, a MRI scan is done of your knee. If for some reason you are not able to have an MRI, a special CT scan with a dye injection can be done instead. OtisMed’s proprietary computer software creates a 3-D image of your arthritic knee. The software then virtually corrects the deformity to return the knee image to its pre-arthritic state.
- A computerized image of the Stryker Triathlon knee implant to be used during surgery is then overlaid, or Shape-Matched™ to the anatomically correct knee model. This process determines the correct implant size prior to surgery. Precise implant placement is calculated and is based on each patient’s individual knee anatomy.
- During this process, the femoral (thigh bone) implant image is accurately placed on the knee model image. Placement is guided by mathematical calculations that come from scientific study of knee function and mechanics.
- Once the virtual femoral implant has been matched, the virtual tibial (shin bone) implant is then matched, based on femoral implant data. When this virtual process is completed, the entire alignment of the knee is known, and the proper places for the surgeon’s bone cuts are calculated to within several tenths of a millimeter.
- 5. All this information is used to create patient-specific cutting guides out of medical grade plastic. These guides will be used in surgery to convey all the precise computer calculations to the surgeon so that conventional intraoperative measurements will not be needed.
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