Acetabular cup prosthesis alignment system and method

A method for aligning an acetabular prosthetic component in a patient's surgically-prepared acetabulum, the method comprising:

• securing a reference sensor module to the patient's bony anatomy;
• securing an inserter sensor module to an acetabular prosthetic component inserter;
• generating, with the reference sensor module, first sensor data indicative of the orientation of the patient's bony anatomy in three-dimensions;
• generating, with the inserter sensor module, second sensor data indicative of the orientation of the acetabular prosthetic component inserter in three-dimensions;
• receiving, with a display module, the first sensor data and the second sensor data;
• determining, with the display module, an orientation of an acetabular prosthetic component coupled to the acetabular prosthetic component inserter relative to the patient's bony anatomy based on the first sensor data and the second sensor data;
• displaying, on the display module, indicia of the determined orientation of the acetabular prosthetic component on a display of the display module;
• and
• transmitting a control signal from the display module to the inserter sensor module to activate an alignment indicator of the inserter sensor module in response to the determined orientation being within a threshold amount of a reference orientation.

A system for aligning an acetabular prosthetic component in a patient's surgically prepared acetabulum, the system comprising:

• a reference sensor module securable to the patient's bony anatomy, the reference sensor module including (i) a housing having a first keyed structure, a (ii) a first orientation sensor positioned in the housing and configured to generate first sensor data indicative of the orientation of the patient's bony anatomy in three-dimensions, and (iii) a first communication circuit to transmit the first sensor data;
• and
• an inserter sensor module securable to an acetabular prosthetic component inserter, the inserter sensor module including (i) a housing having a second keyed structure (ii) a second orientation sensor configured to generate second sensor data indicative of the orientation of the acetabular prosthetic component inserter in three-dimensions, (ii) a second communication circuit to transmit the first sensor data, and (iii) a housing having (iii) an alignment indicator,
• wherein the first keyed structure and the second keyed structure are keyed to each other such that the reference sensor module and the inserter sensor module can be coupled to each other in a single orientation in which the first keyed structure and the second keyed structure are mated.