Applications of Computer-Aided Design/Manufacturing Technology in Treatment of Hemifacial Microsomia

Computer-aided surgery has been widely used in treatment of hemifacial microsomia and matured in recent decades. These techniques include the computer-aided design, virtual surgical planning, modeling surgery, rapid prototyping techniques, intraoperative navigation and so on. The purpose of this article is to summarize the current application of computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing technology in the treatment for hemifacial microsomia during the last 5 years, as well as the views and discussions on some topics, and finally introduce a method of our team. Our effort is that using the holes predrilled in cutting guides, the pre-bent titanium plates are easily placed. Avoiding potential bone autorotation caused by unfitness between conventional titanium plates and bone surface, which keeps the bone fixation precisely in line with the preoperative virtual plan and reduce the movement of bone segments due to the undesirable stress of the plates.