Pioneering Swedish Case uses Materialise's Personalized Surgical Guides and 3D Planning

Swedish teenager William Göransson broke both legs and wrists in a collision with a motorbike. Two years after the accident, while his left arm had recovered well, he was experiencing limited mobility in his right arm, and was unable to do simple tasks like buttoning a shirt. 

Dr. Peter Axelsson at Sahlgrenska hospital in Götenborg wanted to take advantage of cutting-edge technology to treat the patient and restore his mobility. 

To plan the surgery, CT scans were made of both the injured forearm and the healthy one. Based on the CT images, our clinical engineers made a virtual model of the injured and the healthy bone. By making a mirror image with the healthy forearm, doctors could clearly identify the missing bone and determine how the bone originally rotated.  

The next stage in the process when using 3D planning and personalized osteotomy guides is a collaborative planning session between the surgeon and a clinical engineer where the suggested 3D planning is analyzed, and the surgical approach validated. Once approved, Materialise engineers proceed with the design and 3D printing of the personalized surgical guides to be used intraoperatively to drill or cut according to the 3D planning.  

Thanks to the preoperative planning and personalized surgical guides, Dr. Axelsson did not have to take measurements inside the open wound and perform a challenging osteotomy freehand. 3D planning allowed him to anticipate any challenges ahead of time and follow a precise plan to ensure a straight-forward procedure.