Patent ID: 7828805

Claim:
A method for guiding the positioning of the proximal portion of a hip stem component within bone cement in an intramedullary canal of a femur, the femur having a proximal portion nearer the hip joint, a distal portion nearer the knee joint, and a medial portion toward the midline of a body, the proximal portion of the femur including a generally planar cut surface that is located in a cut plane and that extends laterally from the medial portion of the femur, the intramedullary canal defining a longitudinal axis of the femur, the method comprising: positioning a datum guide relative to the intramedullary canal; creating a datum on the femur using the datum guide, the datum located proximally of the cut surface, the datum recording a desired hip stem component position in persistent manner such that the datum remains after the datum guide is removed; introducing bone cement into the intramedullary canal; inserting the hip stem component into the bone cement in the intramedullary canal; referencing the datum with a guide component to position the hip stem component in the desired position; and coupling an inserter to the hip stem component and engaging the inserter with the guide component to guide the inserter in known relationship to the intramedullary canal.