A comparison of acetate and digital templating for total knee arthroplasty.

Accurate preoperative templating can facilitate precise, efficient, and reproducible total knee arthroplasty. We determined whether acetate templating accurately predicted knee implants used and compared the accuracy of digital templating. Preoperative planning was performed on 50 consecutive preoperative radiographs during 2005. After digital images were obtained, appropriately magnified analog films were printed. Four arthroplasty surgeons and one resident performed acetate templating and one arthroplasty surgeon trained in the technique performed digital templating. Acetate and digital templating accurately predicted the size of the implanted component to within one size, 91% versus 93%, respectively. The digital technique was more accurate than acetate for tibial component size. Acetate and digital templating did not differ in predicting femoral component size. Our data suggest digital templating is at least as accurate as traditional acetate templating for predicting knee implant sizing.