Femoral fracture reduction with a parallel manipulator robot on a traction table

BACKGROUND: A parallel manipulator robot (PMR) on a traction table was developed to achieve better alignment of a fractured femur and reduce radiation exposure to both patients and physicians. METHODS: A PMR was built with a disk platform and a two-thirds circular ring. Fracture reductions were performed on eight artificially broken sawbone models and a cadaveric model. Fracture reduction was achieved using six degrees of freedom (6-DOF) movements of the two-thirds circular ring, while the PMR disk platform and the proximal femur remained stationary. RESULTS: Axial discrepancy, lateral translation and angulation had mean errors of 1.31 ± 0.45, 2.43 ± 0.49 and 2.26 ± 0.23 mm, respectively, when coarse adjustment was used. For the fine adjustment step, the mean errors were 0.63 ± 0.19 mm for axial discrepancy and 0.75 ± 0.26 mm for lateral translation. CONCLUSION: Femoral shaft fracture reduction with PMR on a traction table is a feasible and accurate approach to fracture reduction.