Orthopedic surgery planning based on the integration of reverse engineering and rapid prototyping

This paper describes orthopedic surgical planning based on the integration of RE and RP. Using symmetrical characteristics of the human body, CAD data of the original bone without damages for the injured extent are generated from a mirror transformation of undamaged bone data for the uninjured extent. The physical model before the injury is manufactured from RP apparatus. Surgical planning, such as the selection of the proper implant, pre-forming of the implant, decision of fixation positions and incision sizes, etc., is determined by a physical simulation using the physical model. In order to examine the applicability and efficiency of surgical planning technology for orthopedics, various case studies, such as a proximal tibia plateau fracture, a distal tibia comminuted fracture and an iliac wing fracture of pelvis, are carried out. As a result of the examination, it has been shown that the orthopedic surgical planning based on the integration of RE and RP is an efficient surgical tool.