Computer-assisted navigation of total knee arthroplasty for osteoarthritis in a patient with severe posttraumatic femoral deformity

In the setting of extraarticular deformities of the knee, total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is difficult, as anatomical abnormalities obstruct identification of alignment landmarks and may preclude the use of traditional instrumentation. The long-term clinical value of computer assistance for TKA is a point of ongoing controversy. Few reports describe the use of computer-assisted orthopedic surgery as a method to decrease alignment outliers in TKA with associated posttraumatic deformities. In this report, a 70-year-old woman who had a severe distal femoral deformity from a previous open fracture underwent computer-assisted TKA for osteoarthritis. The use of a computer-assisted navigation system achieved a high degree of accuracy relative to the desired target alignment and led to improved function in a patient in which standard instrumentation was not feasible.