This study aimed to compare the biomechanical performance of cups implanted with manual versus robotic reaming, single versus sequential reaming, as well as no screws, 1 screw and 2 screws.
A total of 48, 56-mm diameter 3D-printed porous acetabular cups were impacted into separate polyurethane foam bone models reamed with either manual or robotic arm reaming, and either single or sequential reaming techniques. Simultaneous torsion-compression loading yielded torque at failure, angular displacement at failure and torsional stiffness of acetabular cups fixed with either 0, 1 or 2 acetabular screws.
Overall, torsional stiffness for robotically-reamed cups (both sequential and single) was 45% higher than those reamed via manual instrumentation (3609.0 vs. 2484.6 N·m/rad;
Robotically-reamed cups demonstrated nearly 50% greater torsional stiffness than those reamed manually, suggesting that robotic reaming results in fewer deviations in sphericity, thereby optimising the congruency of the acetabulum-cup interface.