Automatizing Bone Surface Mapping in 3D Reconstructed Tomographies

Abstract

Introduction: In orthopedic surgery, having the bone in it’s exactly position is the most important factor for success. In comminuted fractures there is no bone edge to fit, surgeon’s ability becomes fundamental and human error is common. The way to diminish the human factor is to provide anatomically contoured implants so they can be guides for the surgeon. To make these implants it is necessary to compare the 3D bone contour in the population and find the most fitable implant. Materials and Methods: Twenty ankle tomographies were selected and 3D reconstructed for this research. We design and tested a software for semiautomatized bone superficial scanning. The software marked points on bone surface and constructed a spreadsheet with the 3D cartographic reference for each point. Results: The software was able to set the points in bone surface and the reconstruction of the original bone from the spreadsheet was successful. We were not able to reconstruct an average ankle from the averages of the points. Conclusion: Despite the transformation of the 3D bone surface in its numeric presentation was successful, we were still not able to compare individuals. We believe that volumetric paring could be a solution.