Methods and systems for producing an implant
A computer implemented method for determining the 3-dimensional shape of an implant to be implanted into a subject includes obtaining a computer readable image including a defective portion and a non-defective portion of tissue in the subject, superimposing on the image a shape to span the defective portion, and determining the 3-dimensional shape of the implant based on the shape that spans the defective portion.
1. A method for generating a three-dimensional implant shape of a medical device comprising:
rendering a volumetric image at least a portion of a patient from image data of the patient;
extracting a region of interest from the volumetric image of the patient, wherein the volumetric image comprises target tissue of interest of a patient;
matching a computer-rendered three-dimensional template onto a computer-rendered three dimensional surface of tissue surrounding the patient's target tissue of interest;
producing a three-dimensional shape that fits the patient's target tissue of interest from computer-readable data representing the matched template; and
producing a three-dimensional shape of a medical device from the three-dimensional shape that fits the patient's target tissue of interest.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the target tissue of interest is internal to the patient's body or is an external surface on the patient's body.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein the volumetric image comprises a series of slice images.
4. The method of claim 1 further comprising manufacturing the medical device using the three dimensional shape.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein the medical device is an implant to be implanted in the patient.
6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising fabricating the 3-dimensional shape of the medical device.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein matching comprises matching mirrored or average data to the patient's target tissue.
8. The method of claim 7 wherein the data represents a right-left mirror image of a portion of the patient's anatomy that includes the target tissue of interest.
9. The method of claim 1 wherein the data represents a normative shape of the target tissue.
10. The method of claim 9 wherein the normative shape comprises corresponding normal tissue in at least one non-patient subject.
11. The method of claim 9 wherein the normative shape comprises an average of corresponding normal tissue in more than one non-patient subjects.
12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating the image data of the patient.
13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising fabricating the 3-dimensional shape of the medical device.