System and method for making personalized fibrocartilage implants
Systems ( 500, 1000 ) and methods ( 1700 ) for fabricating a soft tissue implant ( 100, 400 ). The methods generally involve: receiving implant data representative of the target implant; determining a planned weaving path for forming the soft tissue implant; and communicating the planned weaving path to an output device.
1. A method for fabricating a soft tissue implant, comprising:
receiving, by a processor, first data specifying at least a soft tissue dimension and a weighting factor W;
optimizing the weighting factor W based on at least one an actual anterior width, an actual posterior width, and an actual body width, the optimizing comprising using a root-mean-square error algorithm to identify a value that minimizes an error between desired implant widths and actual implant widths in an anterior region, a posterior region and a body region;
using, by the processor, the first data to generate second data defining a target soft tissue implant comprising a scaffold designed to replace a biological soft tissue in a subject and a reinforcing matrix designed to provide structural support to the scaffold;
transforming, by the processor, the first data into a plurality of node location coordinates in a multi-dimensional space which specify a node configuration for a base surface used in subsequent weaving operations to fabricate the soft tissue implant;
using, by the processor, the plurality of node locations to determine a planned weaving or printing path for forming an interlaced fibrous structure having a shape based on a shape of the target soft tissue implant; and
communicating information defining the planned weaving or printing path from the processor to an external output device for facilitating performance of the subsequent weaving or printing operations resulting in the fabrication of the soft tissue implant.
2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the soft tissue comprises a fibrocartilage tissue and the soft tissue dimension comprises at least one of an Anterior-to-Posterior (“AP”) compartment length and a Medial-to-Lateral (“ML”) compartment width.
3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the external output device is a weaving machine which forms the interlaced fibrous structure in accordance with the planned weaving path.
4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the external output device is a display or printer.
5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the root-mean-square error algorithm is defined by:
RMSError
=
(
ANT
des
-
ANT
act
)
2
+
(
BOD
des
-
BOD
act
)
2
+
(
POS
des
-
POS
act
)
2
where, RMSError represents a root-mean-square error, ANT des represents a desired anterior width, ANT act represents an actual anterior width, BOD des represents a desired body width, BOD act represents an actual body width, POS des represents a desired posterior width, and POS act represents an actual posterior width.
6. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising simulating by the processor the subsequent weaving operations using the planned weaving path to generate a simulated articulating surface.
7. The method according to claim 6 , further comprising superimposing the simulated articulated surface into an image of soft tissue to be replaced by the soft tissue implant.
8. The method according to claim 7 , further comprising adjusting the planned weaving path based on an analysis of results of said superimposing.
9. A system, comprising:
a processor; and
a computer-readable storage medium comprising programming instructions that are configured to cause the processor to implement a method for fabricating a soft tissue implant, wherein the programming instructions comprise instructions to:
receive first data specifying at least a soft tissue dimension and a weighting factor W;
optimize the weighting factor W based on at least one an actual anterior width, an actual posterior width, and an actual body width, the optimizing comprising using a root-mean-square error algorithm to identify a value that minimizes an error between desired implant widths and actual implant widths in an anterior region, a posterior region and a body region;
use the first data to generate second data defining a target soft tissue implant comprising a scaffold designed to replace a biological soft tissue in a subject and a reinforcing matrix designed to provide structural support to the scaffold;
transform the first data into a plurality of node location coordinates in a multi-dimensional space which specify a node configuration for a base surface that is to be used in subsequent weaving or printing operations to fabricate the soft tissue implant;
use the plurality of node locations to determine a planned weaving or printing path for forming an interlaced fibrous structure having a shape based on a shape of the target soft tissue implant; and
communicate information defining the planned weaving or printing path to an external output device for facilitating performance of the subsequent weaving or printing operations resulting in the fabrication of the soft tissue implant.
10. The system according to claim 9 , wherein the soft tissue comprises a fibrocartilage tissue and the soft tissue dimension comprises at least one of an Anterior-to-Posterior (“AP”) compartment length and a Medial-to-Lateral (“ML”) compartment width.
11. The system according to claim 9 , wherein the external output device is a weaving machine which forms the interlaced fibrous structure in accordance with the planned weaving path.
12. The system according to claim 9 , wherein the external output device is a display or printer.
13. The system according to claim 9 , wherein the root-mean-square error algorithm is defined by:
RMSError
=
(
ANT
des
-
ANT
act
)
2
+
(
BOD
des
-
BOD
act
)
2
+
(
POS
des
-
POS
act
)
2
where, RMSError represents a root-mean-square error, ANT des represents a desired anterior width, ANT act represents an actual anterior width, BOD des represents a desired body width, BOD act represents an actual body width, POS des represents a desired posterior width, and POS act represents an actual posterior width.
14. The system according to claim 9 , wherein the programming instructions further comprise instructions to simulate the subsequent weaving operations using the planned weaving path to generate a simulated articulating surface.
15. The system according to claim 14 , wherein the programming instructions further comprise instructions to superimpose the simulated articulated surface into an image of soft tissue to be replaced by the soft tissue implant.
16. The system according to claim 15 , wherein the programming instructions further comprise instructions to adjust the planned weaving path based on an analysis of results of said superimposing.