Clinical applications of Mimics and Medical RP Models:
1- Maxillo-facial Surgery:
Medical Rapid Prototyping modeling methods have been found to be very important for the communication of the pathology among the medical team and between the doctor and the patient. The model can also be used for surgery rehearsal purposes, defining clearly the steps (cutting and reconstructing) of surgery and the surgical equipment can be tried out on the model. Feeling the physical model, as an add-on of the 3D visualization, facilitates making the correct diagnosis.
Dr.Fernando Urrutia
Plastic Surgeon (Mexico City, Mexico)
2-Cranio-facial Surgery:
The virtual and physical realization of anatomical defects, facilitates pre-operational planning, such as the design and development of accurate custom-made implants. The opportunity of experimenting or test fitting the implant is provided. A typical cranio-facial application is a cranio-plasty.
Dr.Fernando Urrutia
Plastic Surgeon (Mexico City, Mexico)
3- Orthopaedics:
With the current methods, the time to construct 3D CAD/FEA models is significantly reduced and assumptions such as material differentiation, are simplified. The potential aim is to lead biomechanical analysis into a clinical setting. The design of an implant can be imported (as STL file) again into Mimics (MedCAD), to check the fitting in the real anatomy.
Dr. Fernando Urrutia
Plastic Surgeon (Mexico City, Mexico)
Dr.George Brown
Chief,Division of Spine Surgery University of New Mexico Health Science Center albuquerque, NM
4- Neurosurgery:
Biomodeling methods has been shown to be a valuable tool in the diagnosis, visualization and preoperative planning of complex pathologies, such as brain tumors. The tumor can be colored in the RP model. Multiple views and accurate measurements regarding the position and size of pathological tissues can be obtained.
Dr. Fernando Urrutia
Plastic Surgeon (Mexico City, Mexico)
5- Otology:
It already has been demonstrated that biomodeling can be used for clinical cases requiring higher accuracy, such as cochlear implantation. Anatomical differences can be visualized and surgical access routes can be planned.
Dr. Fernando Urrutia
Plastic Surgeon (Mexico City, Mexico)
6- Vascular and nasal research:
3D medical models of veins and vessels or nasal models are often used to import in a CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) software package to simulate the blood or air flow. Even the physical RP models can be used for real simulation purposes.
Dr.Fernando Urrutia
Plastic Surgeon Clinica Olinda Mexico City, Mexico
GENERAL CLINICAL BENEFITS:
Easier diagnosis of complex pathologies.
Easier communication of diagnosis among the medical team and between the doctor and patient.
Facility for planning and rehearsal of an operation.
Identification of additional medical intervention and secondary operation at the earlier stage of diagnosis.
Significant reduction in operating time and therefor risk and discomfort to the patient.
Decreased operation and secondary operation costs.
