Cases

When a cranial plate needs to be constructed, the objective is always to recreate the skull’s geometry. Since the cranial plate needs to fit perfectly on the patient’s skull you need to incorporate scanned anatomical data into the design. This is usually a rather complex and time-consuming task. 3-matic however can work directly on the data generated by the image processing software, which results in considerable time-savings. In addition, the software provides the necessary tools for easily designing even the most complex prostheses, like those for defect crossing the skull’s midline.

Fast design of a cranial plate

First we made an outline of the defect (see the orange line in Fig. 1) on the 3D model of the scanned skull.

Thanks to 3-matic’s sketcher, you can design arches in the defect (see the blue line in Fig. 1 and the black line in Fig. 2) if necessary. These arches define the height and shape of the resulting prosthesis.

The software’s advanced surface reconstruction tool can next create the cranial plate automatically. You simply need to define some parameters for the plate’s thickness and its clearance with the bone. In this case it took about 10 minutes to design the plate. Furthermore, 3-matic software offers a wide range of tools for quickly crafting a complete 3D design of the prosthesis, including perforations, lugs etc (see Fig. 3). For example: a lug for this cranial plate was created in 5 minutes. Since its design follows the skull’s curvature (see Fig. 4) you ensure a perfect fit with the skull.

Easy integration of anatomical geometry

3-matic is an ideal tool for integrating anatomical structures into a design. Such designs are impossible in CAD software without lengthy reverse engineering, which means this that adapting the files is a very complex process. 3-matic simplifies this process drastically.