Rapid Prototyping for Treatment of Cranial Reconstruction Surgery

Design methods for medical rapid prototyping (RP) of personalized cranioplasty implants are presented in this paper. RP offers an easier way to design customized implants and manufacture them within a very short period. Computed tomography (CT) scans were acquired on a General Electric CT scanner and converted to solid models using Mimics software from Materialise. Stereo lithography patterns were prototyped using Objet build style on a Eden 250.The models helped the surgeons plan and rehearse the surgery well in advance. RP biomedical model is greatly convenient to diagnosis and treatment planning. It could decrease the operation time and the risk of misinterpretation of the medical problem. A physical biomedical model also facilitates surgery planning and makes the rehearsal and simulation of the operation possibly.