Computer-aided position planning of miniplates to treat facial bone defects

PLoS One. 2017 Aug 17;12(8):e0182839. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0182839. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

In this contribution, a software system for computer-aided position planning of miniplates to treat facial bone defects is proposed. The intra-operatively used bone plates have to be passively adapted on the underlying bone contours for adequate bone fragment stabilization. However, this procedure can lead to frequent intra-operatively performed material readjustments especially in complex surgical cases. Our approach is able to fit a selection of common implant models on the surgeon's desired position in a 3D computer model. This happens with respect to the surrounding anatomical structures, always including the possibility of adjusting both the direction and the position of the used osteosynthesis material. By using the proposed software, surgeons are able to pre-plan the out coming implant in its form and morphology with the aid of a computer-visualized model within a few minutes. Further, the resulting model can be stored in STL file format, the commonly used format for 3D printing. Using this technology, surgeons are able to print the virtual generated implant, or create an individually designed bending tool. This method leads to adapted osteosynthesis materials according to the surrounding anatomy and requires further a minimum amount of money and time.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Bone Plates*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Maxillofacial Injuries / surgery*
  • Orthognathic Surgical Procedures*
  • Software*
  • Surgery, Computer-Assisted / methods*
  • Surgery, Oral / methods*

Grants and funding

The work received funding from BioTechMed-Graz in Austria (“Hardware accelerated intelligent medical imaging”) and the 6th Call of the Initial Funding Program from the Research & Technology House (F&T-Haus) at the Graz University of Technology (PI: DDr. Jan Egger). Dr. Xiaojun Chen receives support by the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.: 81511130089) and the Foundation of Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (Grants Nos.: 14441901002, 15510722200 and 16441908400).