Intelligent design of personalized implants and standardized templates for cranioplasty applications | |
| Author | Hieu, Le Chi |
| Call Number | AIT Diss no.ISE-02-02 |
| Subject(s) | Implants, Artificial Craniometry |
| Note | The dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Engineering, School of Advanced Technologies |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Series Statement | PhD.; no ISE-02-02 |
| Abstract | Cranial (skull) defects are the result of trauma, tumor operation, infected craniotomy bone flaps, external decompression, or congenital. Motor vehicle accidents are the most common cause of closed head injuries in general and cranial defects in particular. The rapid growth in the number of motorbikes and cars in ASEAN countries, especially Vietnam, leads to the high level of head traumas, and hence the number of cranial defects is increasing accordingly. The patients with cranial defects are treated by the cranioplasty technique, which is required to protect underlying brain, correct major aesthetic deformities, or both. The techniques for cranioplasty treatments are available in this region; however, they are very limited or not well developed. In the mean time, state-of-the art techniques for cranioplasty treatments are quite expensive or not available in the ASEAN region. Thus, the main objective of this research is to investigate reasonable technical solutions for cranioplasty treatments for the case of Vietnam in particular and ASEAN countries in general. Concretely, the research is aimed at design and manufacturing of personalized implants and the new concept of standardized templates (SDTs) for cranioplasty applications based on available production and material technologies in the ASEAN region. The solutions for design and manufacturing of customized cranioplasty implants by 3-axis CNC milling, rapid prototyping (RP) and tooling technology, were successfully investigated and showed high feasibility. New SDTs were developed based on the reverse engineering techniques and statistical analysis of anthropometric dimensions, cranial defect sizes and distribution on the skulls of Vietnamese people. These SDTs were used for preparing cranioplasty implants of biocompatible materials and were successfully applied. Design support databases, in the form of CT data and skull templates of CAD (Computer Aided Design) entities, were constructed. A design support program interfacing between MIP (Medical Image Processing) and CAD systems was also developed. With the use of the design support program and databases, the design data processing at different implant modeling steps were automatically solved and optimized. The time of designing a personalized cranioplasty implant and a mold for fabricating the implant was minimized to half a day. Through the use of SDTs, combined with rapid tooling techniques, surgeons had a new surgical aid tool, which provided more flexible options and offered less required skills in preparing the implant both intra and pre operatively. The time for implant preparation and operation was, therefore, reduced. Finally, the treatment cost by the proposed solutions was acceptable in the ASEAN region. |
| Year | 2002 |
| Corresponding Series Added Entry | Asian Institute of Technology. Dissertation; no. ISE-02-02 |
| Type | Dissertation |
| School | School of Advanced Technologies (SAT) |
| Department | Department of Industrial Systems Engineering (DISE) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Industrial Systems Engineering (ISE) |
| Chairperson(s) | Bohez, Erik; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Huynh Ngoc Phien; Vatcharaporn Esichaikul; Pham Hoa Binh;Choi, Kuiwon ; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | V .L.I.R (Flemish InterUniversity Council), Belgium; |
| Degree | Thesis (Ph.D.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2002 |