Anatomics and stereolithography team up to facilitate preoperative planning and surgical technique - accelerating surgery and patient recovery.

The Challenge
A man is hit by a car, and suffers severe head injuries. He is rushed into emergency surgery at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane, Australia. Extensive damage warrants the removal of a portion of his skull, leaving a large area of his brain exposed. Although he could be temporarily fitted with a special protective helmet, the patient would ultimately need some type of skull replacement.

Restoring craniofacial defects has always been a difficult challenge for surgeons, because it involves lengthy intraoperative construction time. Was there a method by which an implant could be custom constructed to the patient before surgery?

Elsewhere in Brisbane, a young girl is flown in from the Solomon Islands to the Mater Children's Hospital. In desperate need of major facial reconstruction surgery, the surgeons quickly run imaging tests. Unable to visualize her complex facial deformities from CT data, the surgeons need more information to develop their preoperative plan.

When standard imaging and examination techniques fail to provide understanding of a complex deformity, where can surgeons turn to find a critical solution?

The Results
With difficult challenges at hand, surgeons turned to Anatomics and Queensland Manufacturing Institute (QMI) for the key to address their patients' traumas.

Using stereolithography (SL) and Anatomic's own BIOBUILD system, QMI and Anatomics
constructed a custom implant for the patient at Princess Alexandra Hospital prior to surgery. The SL master was used to create an accurate prosthesis to restore the injured man's skull, avoiding lengthy operative fitting and trimming.

Meanwhile, at Mater Children's Hospital, an SL "biomodel" provided an accurate visual 3-D
replica of the girl's craniofacial deformities. The model gave the surgeons the ability to plan and rehearse the complex reconstructive surgery, speeding surgical time and optimizing the young patient's recovery.

SL biomodeling improves patient care and surgical planning and technique by:

• Facilitating preoperative planning and rehearsal to optimize surgical technique
• Ensuring superior implant design and body fit, reducing operative time and risk
• Rapidly providing anatomically accurate skeletal models for surgeon evaluation
• Refining available diagnostic information
• Providing durable models that can be easily transported and sterilized for
  intraoperative use
• Improving patient communications for informed consent of
  surgical procedures

"Custom SL biomedical implants can reduce operating time by up to 30%. Surgeons can rehearse craniofacial reconstruction and explain it to the patient with SL replicas. SL biomodeling allows real virtuality in surgery."
                               - Dr. Paul D'Urso
                               Neurosurgeon and Research Consultant, Anatomics

The Process
Anatomics uses their own patent-pending BIOBUILD software system to efficiently build stereolithography biomodels and implants for preoperative planning and surgical implants. The process begins in hospital radiology where the patient undergoes CT scanning. 3-D data is then transferred through a high-speed IDSN (integrated digital services network) link to the manufacturing site computer located at the Queensland Manufacturing Institute. 3-D reconstruction of the CT data is performed and the desired anatomical part is selected. The data is further processed then transferred to an SLA 250 system for part building.

Once complete, the physical models are sent back to the physician for use in preoperative planning. If a customized implant is needed, the SL master can be used to cast the finished product in a biomedical material, such as acrylic.

SL parts are as accurate as the CT or MR data supplied with an error of less than 0.5 mm. Parts are constructed with as little as one hour of computer interaction time, and biomodels are available to surgeons within 24 hours of the CT scanning. Customized implants can be manufactured and the final prosthesis finished in as little as 36 hours.

The Tools
• Anatomics’ BIOBUILD software
• SLA 250 system

Company Profile
Located at the Queensland Manufacturing Institute in Brisbane, Australia, Anatomics is the culmination of a four-year project researching and developing 3-D biomodeling through stereolithography technology. Rigorous assessment of countless medical models has enabled the company to use its BIOBUILD system to streamline production of SL biomodels and high-quality custom implants. Their SL biomodels have been used in a variety of surgical procedures, enhancing current imaging techniques, minimizing patient discomfort, and reducing operative time.

Queensland Manufacturing Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to technology transfer, supports Anatomics’ part-building needs and is an active partner in their medical applications research.