Radiographic Analysis of Total Hip Replacements

Researchers

Stuart Kerrigan
Stephen McKenna
Ian Ricketts
Carlos Wigderowitz

Summary of Project

Polyethylene wear in the acetabular components of hip prostheses is implicated in loosening and failure. Radiographic measurement of polyethylene wear is used to identify patients at risk and to assess prosthesis designs. This project focused on analysis of prostheses with cemented acetabular cups from anteroposterior x-ray images. The articular surface of the femoral head and the acetabular rim marker were modelled as spherical and circular respectively, resulting in elliptical image projections. Methods for automatically localising these structures in radiographs were developed using robust ellipse fitting. This enabled successful localisation in the presence of clutter without the need for user interaction. The use of these ellipses as reference structures for wear estimation was investigated.

Stuart Kerrigan was partially funded by Zimmer Corporation.

Publications

  • Kerrigan S, McKenna S J, Ricketts I W and Wigderowitz C, "Automated Assessment of Polyethylene Wear in Cemented Acetabular Components using Anteroposterior Radiographs of Total Hip Replacements", Journal Article, In Review
  • Kerrigan S, "Automated Assessment of Acetabular Wear From Anteroposterior Radiographs using Active Ellipses", PhD Thesis, University of Dundee, 2005
  • Kerrigan S, McKenna S J, Ricketts I W, Wigderowitz C A, Eccentricity Error Correction for Automated Estimation of Polyethylene Wear after Total Hip Arthroplasty, Medical Image Understanding and Analysis (MIUA), Bristol, 255-258, July 2005
  • Kerrigan S, McKenna S J, Ricketts I W and Wigderowitz C, Eccentric Elliptical Contours in Total Hip Replacements, Medical Image Understanding and Analysis (MIUA), London, 216-219, 23-24 September, 2004
  • Kerrigan S, McKenna S J, Ricketts I W and Wigderowitz C, "Analysis of Total Hip Replacements using Active Ellipses", Medical Image Understanding and Analysis (MIUA), Sheffield, 10-11 July, 2003
  • Kerrigan S, Ricketts I W, McKenna S J and Wigderowitz C, "Measurement of acetabular wear using intelligent ellipses", Meeting of the British Orthopaedic Research Society, Cardiff, September 16-17, 2002, p35