3D Bone Puzzle: Solved

There's some interesting work taking place at the British Royal Infirmary, where 3D technology is being used to improve the process of rebuilding highly complex joint fractures. 

 

These complex fractures are very difficult to repair due to the myriad of tiny pieces that must be precisely placed back in their original locations in order to successfully heal. Traditional approaches involved lengthy and invasive surgery to find and reposition the broken bits. 

 

Now the new approach is to capture 3d broken bone data from a CAT scan and then apply complex mathematical algorithms to simulate the reconstruction - thus discovering the optimal displacements and rotations for each piece. They hope to devise a "minimally invasive surgical robot" to perform the actual reconstruction, under the direction of a certified surgeon, of course. 

 

Via HealthCanal