Computer-aided design and manufacturing of surgical templates and their clinical applications: a review

Expert Rev Med Devices. 2016 Sep;13(9):853-64. doi: 10.1080/17434440.2016.1218758. Epub 2016 Aug 12.

Abstract

Introduction: The surgical template is a guide aimed at directing the implant placement, tumor resection, osteotomy and bone repositioning. Using it, preoperative planning can be transferred to the actual surgical site, and the precision, safety and reliability of the surgery can be improved. However, the actual workflow of the surgical template design and manufacturing is quite complicated before the final clinical application.

Areas covered: The major goal of the paper is to provide a comprehensive reference source of the current and future development of the template design and manufacturing for relevant researchers. Expert commentary: This paper aims to present a review of the necessary procedures in the template-guided surgery including the image processing, 3D visualization, preoperative planning, surgical guide design and manufacturing. In addition, the template-guided clinical applications for various kinds of surgeries are reviewed, and it demonstrated that the precision of the surgery has been improved compared with the non-guided operations.

Keywords: 3D printing; CAD/CAM; Surgical template; clinical application; preoperative planning.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Computer-Aided Design*
  • Humans
  • Patient Care Planning
  • Preoperative Care
  • Printing, Three-Dimensional
  • Software
  • Surgery, Computer-Assisted / methods*