HipHapp: A Bandage for Preventing Hip Dislocations

Abstract

Hip replacement surgery is a procedure undertaken to relieve pain and restore function of the hip joints. During the surgery, an artificial joint is implanted to replace the injured hip. During the first weeks after the surgery, patients are potentially prone to dislocate their newly implanted joint because of the lack of tissue around the joint that stabilizes it. In collaboration with orthopedists and physiotherapists, we have identified a series of 'critical movements' (i.e. movements that can lead to hip dislocation). These movements include: crossing the legs inwards, spreading the leg outwards, turning the foot inwards while standing, bending the hips (by either lifting the affected leg or bending the upper body). In this work, we introduce HipHapp, a smart hip bandage to prevent hip dislocation after a hip replacement surgery. HipHapp uses motion sensors to track patients' movements and provides alerts in the form of sound and vibration when a critical movement is detected. We have already built the bandage with user comfort and reliability as main requirements. We have also started assessing the performance of different machine learning algorithms to classify critical movements based on data collected from eight healthy individuals.