title: Computer-aided design and manufacturing of surgical templates and their clinical applications: a review.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The surgical template is a guide aimed at directing the implant placement, tumor resection, osteotomy and bone repositioning. Using it, preoperative planning can be transferred to the actual surgical site, and the precision, safety and reliability of the surgery can be improved. However, the actual workflow of the surgical template design and manufacturing is quite complicated before the final clinical application.
  
  
  METHODS
  The major goal of the paper is to provide a comprehensive reference source of the current and future development of the template design and manufacturing for relevant researchers. Expert commentary: This paper aims to present a review of the necessary procedures in the template-guided surgery including the image processing, 3D visualization, preoperative planning, surgical guide design and manufacturing. In addition, the template-guided clinical applications for various kinds of surgeries are reviewed, and it demonstrated that the precision of the surgery has been improved compared with the non-guided operations.
authors.affiliation: a Institute of Biomedical Manufacturing and Life Quality Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Mechanical System and Vibration, School of Mechanical Engineering , Shanghai Jiao Tong University , Shanghai , China.
authors.forename: Xiaojun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: a Institute of Biomedical Manufacturing and Life Quality Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Mechanical System and Vibration, School of Mechanical Engineering , Shanghai Jiao Tong University , Shanghai , China.
authors.forename: Lu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: a Institute of Biomedical Manufacturing and Life Quality Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Mechanical System and Vibration, School of Mechanical Engineering , Shanghai Jiao Tong University , Shanghai , China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: a Institute of Biomedical Manufacturing and Life Quality Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Mechanical System and Vibration, School of Mechanical Engineering , Shanghai Jiao Tong University , Shanghai , China.
authors.forename: Xing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: b Faculty of Medicine , KU Leuven , Leuven , Belgium.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: b Faculty of Medicine , KU Leuven , Leuven , Belgium.
authors.forename: Constantinus
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Politis
mesh_terms: D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D006801:Humans; D010347:Patient Care Planning; D011300:Preoperative Care; D066330:Printing, Three-Dimensional; D012984:Software; D025321:Surgery, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*
keywords: 3D printing; CAD/CAM; Surgical template; clinical application; preoperative planning