Elaine Persall wrote:
>
> Do you know of any small medical companies involved
> with CAD/CAM? Something along the lines of creating custom
> implants or using CT scan data to reproduce bones and other
> structures before surgery?
Baxter Healthcare in the Chicago area does this. There is also a
company in Texas but I cannot remember their name.
At Autofact Asia, there was a great presentation by the Queensland
(Austrailia) Research Institute about using SLA to reproduce skulls from
CAT sacn data. They were using them to aid in the repair of massive
skulll deformities. The SLA skull was used to understand the nature of
the deformity and to assist in the developing (by hand) of the
prosthesis (sp?). SLA was the method of choice simply because their
resin (I don't recall which one) was the only one capable of being
sterilized, so that the RP object could be brought into the operating
theatre. The advantages are less time "under" for the paitent because
the surgeon knows the extent of the deformity/injury before "opening"
the patient.
As a further refinement, I can see that a LOM could be used to create a
ceramic prosthetic (sp?) along with the SLA skull, further automating
the process. The ceramic material is ideal because the bone will fuse
with this material, creating a stronger repair. This is purely in the
research phase right now.
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