Preoperative planning of primary total hip arthroplasty using conventional radiographs.

Objective: the objective of this study was to present an analog method for preoperative planning of primary total hip arthroplasty procedures based on measuring the components by overlaying the transparencies of the prosthesis on the preoperative radiographs and checking the accuracy, both for predicting the size of the acetabular and femoral components used and for restoring the offset and correcting the dysmetria.

Methods: between March 2005 and July 2009, 56 primary total hip arthroplasty procedures performed on 56 patients at the Mario Covas State Hospital in Santo André were analyzed. The measurements on the femoral and acetabular components obtained through planning were compared with those that were used in the surgery.