knee joint volume

The development of novel robotic surgical instruments such as a laser-cutting tool for minimally invasive unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) is challenging when quantitative requirements are missing. Therefore, we developed and applied a method to quantify the volume inside the knee joint available to manipulate robotic surgical instruments during minimally invasive procedures. We 1) injected contrast solution into nine cadaveric knees, 2) performed and segmented computed tomography scans, and 3) investigated the size and distribution of the injected contrast solution’s volume inside the knee joints. The injected contrast solution’s volume represented the available manipulation space for minimally invasive surgical instruments. read more