Abstract
Femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) has been increasingly recognized as a cause of early hip osteoarthritis. FAI is characterized by pathologic contact between the femur and acetabular rim during hip join movement, caused by morphological abnormalities. Arthroscopic technique has become increasingly popular for FAI surgical treatment because of its minimal invasiveness. However, it involves cumbersome procedures and over- or under-resection are likely to occur. To tackle this issue, robot-assisted FAI arthroscopy is a well suited approach because it results in high accuracy and reproducible surgical outcomes. This dissertation provides new approaches and methods for the current challenges in the development of robot-assisted FAI arthroscopy. The study has three objectives: 1) to develop a robust calibration method for the A-mode ultrasound probe used for noninvasive bone registration, 2) to develop a bone registration simulator for verifying the registration accuracy and consistency for any given registration point-pattern, and 3) to develop a hip range of motion simulation system that returns the virtual range of motion and determines the bone resection volume. Carefully designed calibration procedures and simulation experiments have been conducted during the study of this research. From the experimental results, the developed ultrasound calibration method successfully reduces the registration errors and is proved to be robust. The results from the registration simulator indicate that the pattern with widely distributed points lead to better registration accuracy and consistency. The hip range of motion simulation system results in acceptable accuracy and successfully generates the resection volume. With further modifications, the ultrasound probe can be successfully calibrated with the developed method, and will be applied for noninvasive bone registration. The registration simulator can also be served as a useful tool for determining the optimized registration point-pattern, which can lead to reduced surgical trauma and registration time. Finally, the developed range of motion simulation system can allow the surgeon to evaluate the surgical outcome and to determine the resection volume even before the surgery begins. To conclude, this dissertation provides useful approaches, methods, and software for developing robot-assisted FAI arthroscopy.