Clinical Application Of Digitizing Technique To Repair Craniofacial Bone Defects

With the progress of science,technology and the society, the accidents, high altitudefalling and beating could cause craniofacial bone defect;primary craniofacial bonetumors or brain tumor infiltrating into the skull could cause bone destruction.Decompressive craniectomy in neurosurgery could cause craniofacial bonedefect,too.Craniofacial bone defects bring great physical and psychological harm topatients, and influence people’s life quality and survival claims, the repairation ofcraniofacial bone defects and craniofacial shaping also bring higher requirements todoctors.Because of complex craniofacial bone anatomy structure, surface variation,higher repair requirements, the skull defect repair of complex parts has been a challengeof the topics of plastic surgery.Conventional surgical methods are only a certain extentto restore the integrity of the cranial cavity,long time surgery, complex operation andpostoperative effects all depend on the technology and the experience of the surgeon,the shaping effect is not very wonderful. Application of digitizing technique in plasticsurgery have been broader，it will bring a broad prospects.ObjectiveWith three-dimensional CT reconstruction technology, computer-aided designtechnology, computer-aided manufacturing technology and titanium alloy precisioncasting technology, we manufacture implant button preoperative,to explore the cosmeticeffect of repairation of craniofacial bone defects. MethodsWe choose9patients of craniofacial bone defects at First Affiliated Hospital ofAnhui Medical University, plastic surgery from September2003to November2011,6males,3females; aged18to45years old,34years old on average.We usecomputer-aided technology preoperative to repair craniofacial bone defects with U.S.company GE64rows of128-slice spiral CT scan to obtain the two-dimensional virtualdata, transfer two-dimensional data to three-dimensional reconstruction by the GEADW4.4Workstation.We use computer-aided design and computer-aidedmanufacturing technology to create a personalized3D implant, to repair craniofacialbone defects personalized.ResultsWith the application of computer-aided technique to repair craniofacial bonedefects, operative time was significantly reduced, and have a good postoperativerecovery of all patients, no infection, subcutaneous hematoma and scalp tingling.Postoperative CT scans that titanium mesh fitted to craniofacial bone. All patients werefollowed up from6months to2years, there were no cases of material exposed,titaniumscrew loose, partial indentation. After the repairation, it had a good effect with theoriginal defect site and deformed appearance,appropriated radian, bilateral symmetry,patient satisfaction.It could improve cosmetic effect. Of craniofacial bone defects anddeformities involved in the forehead, supraorbital margin and cheekbones significantly.ConclusionWith the application of computer-aided techniques to repair craniofacial bonedefects, surgery planning seemed more intuitive and significantly improved surgicalprecision.It could save operation time and reduce surgical complicating disease. Withthe personalized three-dimensional computer-aided design and manufacturing technology,it could achieve requirements of the anatomy structure to the greatest extent,recover patients’ feature to the greatest extent,obtain a good cosmetic results, receive aperfect combination of science and aesthetics.