Investigating the morphology of the proximal femur of the Indian population towards designing more suitable THR implants.

There are considerable variations in the femoral geometry of populations across different geographical locations and ethnic groups. The osteological parameters of the proximal femur are very important for the design of suitably sized prostheses of total hip replacement (THR), especially for cementless implantation. Though total hip prostheses in different sizes are available from manufacturers, best-fit implants are often unavailable for Indian patients. To produce hip prostheses of suitable sizes and shapes for Indian patients, important osteological parameters of the proximal femur in the Indian population are needed. In this study, 100 computed tomography (CT) images of hip joints of members of the Indian population were collected, and 20 anatomical parameters of the proximal femur were analyzed. The mean values of these parameters were compared with those of the populations of a few other countries that were available from the literature. The parameter comparison was also performed between males and females in our subsample of the Indian population. Finally, values of the important parameters were grouped suitably for future design of standard sizes of THR implants for the Indian population. We found variations in the morphology of the proximal femur between the Indian population and that of other countries, which illustrates a need for standardizing THR implant sizes for the Indian population, especially for cementless implantation. The variations of a few important parameters of the proximal femur also occur between the male and female Indian populations. This study is likely to be a significant step toward designing suitably sized cementless THR implants for the Indian population.