Individual preformed titanium meshes for orbital fractures

Area of Science:

• Medical Engineering
• Neurosurgery
• Plastic Surgery

Background:

• Orbital fractures present complex reconstructive challenges.
• Accurate pre-operative planning and intraoperative guidance are crucial for optimal outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel procedure for fabricating patient-specific preformed titanium meshes for orbital fracture repair.
• To assess the accuracy of this technique in achieving precise mesh placement.

Main Methods:

• Utilized preoperative CT datasets from five patients with orbital fractures.
• Generated 3D reconstructions by mirroring the unaffected orbital side to create a defect-specific sub-volume.
• Produced adaptive titanium mesh templates based on these 3D models.
• Employed navigation-aided procedures for accurate intraoperative mesh placement.

Main Results:

• The developed procedure demonstrated high accuracy, with reconstructed orbital floors measuring approximately 1 mm.
• This accuracy is within the technical limit of detection, indicating reliable reconstruction.
• Navigation-aided placement ensured precise positioning of the preformed titanium mesh during surgery.

Conclusions:

• The findings support the use of navigation-aided reconstruction for orbital fractures.
• This study serves as a pilot project for future investigations into preformed osteosynthesis templates.
• Future work will involve creating clustered patient databases to generate diverse template sets tailored to patient demographics and anatomy.