Patent ID: 7559931

Claim:
A method of positioning a medical prosthesis with respect to an anatomical feature of a patient, the method comprising: identifying an implantation location in the patient for the medical prosthesis; identifying an anatomical feature on the patient related to the implantation location, the anatomical feature establishing a plane for use in positioning the medical prosthesis; providing a surgical instrument adapted to support the medical prosthesis and an alignment guide adapted to contact the anatomical feature, and identifying a first position of the surgical instrument relative to the anatomical feature, the alignment guide having at least a planar portion adapted to engage the plane of the anatomical feature; coupling the alignment guide to the surgical instrument; coupling a measuring device to the surgical instrument; positioning the surgical instrument relative to the patient in a first position, the planar portion of the alignment guide in the first position being substantially parallel to the plane of the anatomical feature; zeroing and measuring first positional changes with the measuring device; removing the surgical instrument from the first position and removing the alignment guide from the surgical instrument; coupling the medical prosthesis to the surgical instrument; positioning the surgical instrument relative to the patient in a second position, the medical prosthesis in the second position being near the implantation location; zeroing the measuring device, and measuring second positional changes with the measuring device; and determining a relative position of the medical prosthesis to the anatomical feature and the implantation location, based on the first positional changes and the second positional changes.