System for femoral tunnel position determination based on the X - ray

Abstract

Verification of the post-operative results of the human knee anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction depends, mostly, on the angle and position (o'clock) of the graft (screw) which is built into the human femur (tunnel position). This verification has very significant influence on the patient's recovery and estimation of the success of the knee anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. Usual method for the screw angle and position determination is CT (Computed Tomography), which exposes patient to significant radiation and is very expensive. To avoid this, basic idea, which is discussed in this paper, is to generate screw angle in the third orthographic view based on the two orthographic views obtained by the X-ray images. Generated screw angle third orthographic view is most interesting for post-operative patient recovery and estimation of the success of the knee anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, according to medical standpoint. The program system is developed by using VTK (Visualization Tool Kit) library and Visual C++ environment. System, based on the JPG input image, which represents scanned x-ray images, generates third screw view with appropriate screw angle - graft position.