Original Article

SHOULD WE MEASURE PELVIC INCIDENCE MANUALLY OR WITH COMPUTER ASSISTANCE?

  • İsmail OLTULU
  • Melih MALKOÇ
  • Mehmet İŞYAR
  • Sercan YALÇIN
  • Tuğrul ÖRMECİ
  • Akın UĞRAŞ

Received Date: 01.05.2014 Accepted Date: 26.06.2014 J Turk Spinal Surg 2014;25(3):183-187

Objective:

To assess whether computer-assisted measurement or manual measurement of pelvic incidence is superior.

Study Design:

Standing antero–posterior and lateral radiographs of the entire spinal column of 30 patients between 20–40 years of age were included in the study. The sacral slope, pelvic incidence, and pelvic tilt were evaluated to measure the sagittal balance. The measurements were done both manually and using a computer-assisted method by two spinal surgeons and one orthopedic surgeon. Statistically, an intra-class correlation coefficient method was used.

Results:

An almost perfect agreement was found between surgeons with the computer-assisted measurements. Moderate to strong agreement was found between the measurements taken manually.

Conclusion:

The use of computer-assisted programs will improve the accuracy of measurements, especially for measurements which are difficult to calculate, such as the sagittal balance.

Keywords: Pelvic incidence, sagittal balance, radiographic measurement