A semi-automatic computer-aided method for surgical template design
This addresses the need for efficient and generalizable surgical template design in medical procedures, but it is incremental as it builds on existing computer-aided methods.
The authors tackled the problem of designing customized surgical templates by developing a semi-automatic computer-aided framework, resulting in a software tool that efficiently generates templates for various surgeries like oral implantology and cervical pedicle screw insertion.
This paper presents a generalized integrated framework of semi-automatic surgical template design. Several algorithms were implemented including the mesh segmentation, offset surface generation, collision detection, ruled surface generation, etc., and a special software named TemDesigner was developed. With a simple user interface, a customized template can be semi- automatically designed according to the preoperative plan. Firstly, mesh segmentation with signed scalar of vertex is utilized to partition the inner surface from the input surface mesh based on the indicated point loop. Then, the offset surface of the inner surface is obtained through contouring the distance field of the inner surface, and segmented to generate the outer surface. Ruled surface is employed to connect inner and outer surfaces. Finally, drilling tubes are generated according to the preoperative plan through collision detection and merging. It has been applied to the template design for various kinds of surgeries, including oral implantology, cervical pedicle screw insertion, iliosacral screw insertion and osteotomy, demonstrating the efficiency, functionality and generality of our method.