Accuracy of a hand-held surgical navigation system for tibial resection in total knee arthroplasty

•Accurate coronal and sagittal tibial component alignment is important for successful TKA.•Traditional mechanical alignment cutting guides are associated with a high rate of outliers.•A novel hand-held navigation device significantly improves accuracy of tibial resection in TKA.

BackgroundAccuracy of total knee arthroplasty (TKA) implant placement and overall limb are important goals of TKA technique.MethodsThe accuracy and ease of use of an accelerometer-based hand-held navigation system for tibial resection during TKA was examined in 90 patients. Preoperative goals for sagittal alignment, navigation system assembly time, resection time, and tourniquet time were evaluated. Coronal and sagittal alignment was measured postoperatively.ResultsThe average coronal tibial component alignment was 0.43° valgus; 6.7% of patients had tibial coronal alignment outside of ± 3° varus/valgus. The difference between the intraoperative goal and radiographically measured posterior tibial slope was 0.5°. The average time to completion of the tibial cut was 4.6 minutes.ConclusionThe accelerometer-based hand-held navigation system was accurate for tibial coronal and sagittal alignment during TKA, with no additional surgical time compared with conventional instrumentation.