Background
Objective quantification of anatomical variations about the femur head–neck junction in pre‐operative planning for surgical intervention in femoro‐acetabular impingement is problematic, as no clear definition of average normal anatomy for a specific subject exists.
Methods
We have defined the normal‐equivalent of a subject's anatomy by using a statistical shape model and geometric shape optimization for finding correspondences, while excluding the femoral head–neck junction during the fitting procedure. The presented technique was evaluated on a cohort of 20 patients.
Results
Difference in α‐angle measurement between the actual morphology and the predicted normal‐equivalent, averaged 1.3° (SD 1.7°) in the control group versus 8° (SD 7.3°) in the patient group (p < 0.05).
Conclusions
Defining normal equivalent anatomy is effective in quantifying anatomical dysmorphism of the femoral head–neck junction and as such can improve presurgical analysis of patients diagnosed with femoro‐acetabular impingement. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.