Imaging Software for Cranial Vault Reconstruction Surgery and Planning

Summary

Inventors at Children's National Hospital have developed a surgical method and imaging software tool that provides an automatic and objective framework for physicians preparing for a cranial vault reconstruction surgery.

Description

Craniosynostosis is a birth defect that causes one or more sutures on an infant’s skull to close or fuse prematurely. Cranial vault remodeling is a surgical procedure that corrects the abnormal head shape found in craniosynostosis and provides sufficient room for the brain to grow normally. Current surgical procedures involving excision and remodeling of certain bones to correct the skull shape are guided by subjective estimation of a normal cranial shape. Inventors have created a surgical imaging software tool that provides accurate and optimized cranial shape for cranial vault reconstruction surgery planning. This technology has the following advantages:

1. Provides close-to-normal shape framework in terms of point-to-point distances, global shape and curvature.
2. Allows surgeons to consider different interventional approaches using different bone cut templates and basic operations (bone cutting, bending, repositioning, translation, rotation) performed in surgery.
3. Greater accuracy in surgical planning due to quantitative rather than qualitative/subjective planning.
4. Automation may lead to quick adoption by healthcare providers.

Applications

• Pediatric Craniosynostosis

Stage of Development

• In vivo and human clinical data acquired.

Intellectual Property Status

• Software available

This technology is available for exclusive or non-exclusive licensing.