Computer-assisted tridimensional preoperative planning in hip revision surgery.

It is often difficult to obtain excellent clinical results in complex cases of hip replacement surgery. Over recent years, in order to improve the success rate of this type of surgery, prosthetic implants that are more ductile and more reliable have been developed. At the same time, important progress has been made in improving the accuracy of surgical method. A great deal of effort has been made to improve methods of preoperative planning. The world over, computerized systems that aid the surgeon in his or her clinical practice (CAOS systems) have been developed. The authors present Hip-op, a new CAOS type system, for preoperative planning. In particular, the use of Hip-op in some very complex cases of hip revision surgery is reported. Based on clinical experience, it is believed that Hip-op is a useful system, one that is easy to use, and that it is capable of improving the accuracy of surgery.