AR aided implant templating for unilateral fracture reduction and internal fixation surgery

Reconstruction plates (deformable metal plates) are widely used in reduction and internal fixation surgeries for bone fractures at sites with irregular or individually different anatomical morphology. Traditional surgical procedures require intra-operative manual implant templating, which often leads to prolonged operations with unnecessary damage or hemorrhage. In this paper, we present a novel approach that uses computer graphics and augmented reality (AR) techniques to assist preoperative implant templating, substantially improving these surgical procedures. We exploit the symmetry of the human body to virtually reconstruct the broken skeletal structure using intact contralateral bones. Then 3D models of virtual implants are generated along a drawn path and rendered in an AR environment, to guide preoperative implant templating, thus reducing surgical invasiveness and operation duration. A successful clinical application is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of our method.