Pre-operative templating for knee arthroplasty shows low accuracy with standard X-rays.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accuracy and reliability of pre-operative templating in predicting the size of femoral and tibial components and the effect of coronal deformity on templating accuracy.

Methods: This was a retrospective study of 39 pre-operative templates prepared by three different surgeons with different levels of training. The accuracy and reliability measures were evaluated by alpha and kappa coefficients of agreement.