Patient specific mandibular implant for maxillofacial surgery using additive manufacturing

The reconstruction of mandible bone defects by the intraoperative planning of design implant results in the aesthetic and cosmetic deviation leading to increase surgical time and implant revision. The maxillofacial surgery can be improved using advanced manufacturing technique such as additive manufacturing technology with the medical modeling software to design patient specific implant which can custom fit the patient´s jaw precisely and accurately. The commercial produced mandible reconstruction implants are of standard size and shape which needs manual bending before surgery, using trial and error method to custom fit the patient´s jaw. Even a slight mismatch between the bone-plate interface results in the implant loosening and failure. With the integration of computer aided design (CAD), additive manufacturing, and advanced imaging systems (CT or MRI), the patient CT scan images are analyzed and processed using medical modeling software into a 3D format to produce a customized or patient specific design implant via additive manufacturing technique, such as fused deposition modeling and Electron beam melting technology. The produced customized implant fits accurately onto the patient´s jaw, thus reducing the implant revision and surgery time. The customized mandible implant design and its fabrication using Additive manufacturing is an effective method in the mandible reconstruction surgery. In this study, a digital design route for patient specific mandible implant is proposed.