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An Image Processing-based Approach for Additive Manufacturing of Cranial Implants

Ghalsasi, Omkar
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1623169593210198

Abstract Details

2021, MS, University of Cincinnati, Engineering and Applied Science: Mechanical Engineering.
Craniectomy is a neurosurgical process in which a portion of the skull (cranium) is surgically removed in patients suffering from traumatic injuries to the brain. This removed portion is called a 'bone flap,' and, in many cases, it is not possible to preserve the removed part. Another surgical procedure called 'Cranioplasty' is performed to replace this bone flap in the patient's skull. It includes the design, fabrication, and fitting of an implant to the patient's skull to close the opening. The current cranial implant design process requires manual intervention at various stages, cumbersome, and requires CAD and geometric modeling expertise, and needs to be improved. This thesis describes a novel way of automatically generating a patient-specific implant design. The approach accepts the Computed Tomography (CT) scan of the head of a patient who has undergone craniectomy surgery. The input information is extracted from the DICOM files of the CT scan of the skull, and an STL file representing the cranial implant geometry is obtained as an output. This output STL mesh can then be fabricated using additive manufacturing (AM) processes. The approach outlined in this work assumes that the skull is symmetric about the mid-sagittal plane, which divides the body into left and right parts. As a first step, an algorithm is developed, locating the midsagittal plane for a given patient's skull data using image processing techniques., Next, the location and the outline of the hole portion of the skull are then determined from the pixel data using ray-tracing methods. Finally, the outline and 3-D model of the flap are determined by a combination of image processing and computational geometry approaches. This work's main contribution is to create a novel way of generating a patient-specific implant STL that can be readily printed on AM machines. The cranial model can also be used for designing a die that can be used for fabricating the flap. Two test cases are used to validate the results successfully on DICOM data obtained from skull models.
Sam Anand, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Jonathan Forbes (Committee Member)
Kumar Vemaganti, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
56 p.
Mechanical Engineering
Additive Manufacturing; Patient-specific cranial Implant; Image processing; Computational geometry; DICOM data

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Ghalsasi, O. (2021). An Image Processing-based Approach for Additive Manufacturing of Cranial Implants [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1623169593210198

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Ghalsasi, Omkar. An Image Processing-based Approach for Additive Manufacturing of Cranial Implants. 2021. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1623169593210198.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Ghalsasi, Omkar. "An Image Processing-based Approach for Additive Manufacturing of Cranial Implants." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1623169593210198

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1623169593210198
260
© 2021, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.