Surgery of complex craniofacial defects: A single-step AM-based methodology.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Surgical Technology
• 3D Printing Applications

Background:

• Complex craniofacial interventions, like severe hypertelorism with skull defects, traditionally require multiple surgeries.
• Current multi-stage procedures involve separate operations for skull correction and custom prosthesis implantation, necessitating interim imaging and design phases.
• This leads to increased operative time, costs, and patient burden.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a systematic optimization strategy for complex craniofacial surgical interventions.
• To validate a novel design methodology for virtual surgery and the fabrication of custom cranium vault plates.
• To streamline the surgical process by integrating skull correction and custom implant placement into a single intervention.

Main Methods:

• A virtual/mock surgery approach using patient-specific imaging and 3D reconstruction.
• Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and Additive Manufacturing (AM) for planning and creating the cranium plate.
• Integration of osteotomy planning and titanium plate design within a unified workflow.

Main Results:

• Successful application of the methodology in a complex case study.
• Demonstrated feasibility of the integrated CAD/AM approach.
• Significant reduction in surgical time and overall costs, with the benefit of a single operation for the patient.

Conclusions:

• This work represents the first methodology to simultaneously address osteotomy and custom titanium cranium plate design and implantation.
• The proposed CAD/AM-based approach offers a streamlined and efficient solution for complex craniofacial reconstructions.
• The findings pave the way for optimized surgical interventions, improving patient outcomes and reducing healthcare resource utilization.