title: Computer aided planning device for preoperative bending of osteosynthesis plates.
abstract: In craniofacial surgery bone fractures and repositioned bone segments often have to be fixed by titanium miniplates. In clinical routines the surgeon has to fit each miniplate t be used to the individual bone structure of the patient: bending and fitting of a miniplate must frequently be repeated several times. Often up to twenty minutes are required to achieve the best fit of a single osteosynthesis plate. As a patient usually receive several miniplates for bone fixture, he will be exposed to long anaesthesia. In co-operation with the surgeons of the Clinic of Maxillofacial surgery at the University of Heidelberg we have conceived a planning system for the preoperative positioning of miniplates on a model of the patient's skull. The appropriate bending is computed and the bending data are stored for later use by a bending device and an intraoperative positioning aid. The principles of our computer-aided tool are presented in this paper.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Process Control and Robotics, University of Karlsruhe, Germany. burghart@ira.uka.de
authors.forename: C R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Burghart
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Neukirch
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hassfeld
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Rembold
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Woern
mesh_terms: D001860:Bone Plates; D003198:Computer Simulation; D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D005593:Fracture Fixation, Internal / Q000295:instrumentation*; D006801:Humans; D019647:Oral Surgical Procedures / Q000295:instrumentation*