surgery

3D surgical animations are important for several reasons, from patient education, medical education of trainee surgeons to informed patient consent. Informed patient consent is an increasingly important issue where doctors have to explain complex surgical procedures to their patients. Holographic 3D technology helps surgeons save time and improve patient understanding because it enables a great deal of information to be absorbed quickly. Explanations from 2D images require more time because the patient, medical student or doctor needs to extrapolate the missing 3D information, leading to extra "cognitive load". Seeing their issues and/or medical interventions in 3D and therefore better understand them also helps with patients’ anxiety.

Below some examples of surgical procedures in 3D we made for clients.

Maxillo-facial and Dental Implant

Holoxica collaborated with Dr Stefan Stübinger of the Hightech Research Centre for Oral and Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery of the University of Basel on the 3D visualisation of a procedure around a novel dental implant with a special coronal groove design. The 3D visualisation shows the jawbone, teeth, cavity, implant and crown. An animation of the procedure was created, enabling a full 3D view of all of these elements. The titanium implant was created as a mechanical engineering part extracted from a CAD model. The jaw bone and teeth data were extracted semi-automatically from the patient’s CT scan.

We contributed a chapter in Dr Stübinger’s book ‘Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery’, on ‘Holographic 3D Visualisation of Medical Scan Images’, Springer 2020, pages 209-226.

More info.

Hip Implant - Femoral Prosthesis

Hip replacement surgery is a procedure in which a doctor surgically removes a painful hip joint with arthritis and replaces it with an artificial joint often made from metal and plastic components. The implant is in two parts - the ball (femoral head) at the top of the thigh bone (femur) that fits into the rounded socket (acetabullum) located in the pelvis. The ball at the top of the thigh bone is removed, together with part of the interior shaped to fit the hip replacement (the long metal part) - this may be a single part or two separate parts. The socket is also replaced with a metal part to fit the joint, thereby creating the complete joint. The implants are usually held in place with a cement material.

A modern artificial joint can last for at least 15 years.

More info.

Knee Replacement

The knee is made of 3 parts: thigh bone (femur), shin (tibia) and knee cap (patella). The femur and tibia are first cut away. The end of the tibia is replaced by a flat metal plate and a plastic spacer (not shown) to reduce friction when the joint moves. The end of the femur is replaced by a curved metal part, where the two parts now create an artificial joint.

The joint typically lasts 10-15 years, after which another replacement is needed.

More info.