Patient-specific Orthopaedic Surgical Planning: Image Datasets to Fe Models

Computational simulations of surgical procedures are of significant interest in orthopaedic-related research. Over the years, the finite element method has emerged as a viable means to determine the stresses and strains in implants and their interaction with the host bone. Very few surgical planning studies, however, have been performed on patient-/subject-specific models. Toward that goal, we have made advancements in automating the patientspecific bony geometry definitions from CT and/or MR image datasets and toward automating the development of corresponding patient-specific finite element (FE) mesh definitions via a custom-written software package, IA-FEMesh (Shivanna, 2006). The objective of this project is to advance these efforts by introducing tools to simulate a variety of surgical procedures, thereby interactively incorporating implants into such models. These models may then accommodate the implant under consideration. One day, such models may aid the surgeon in preoperative planning, ultimately resulting in an improved clinical outcome.