ADVANCES IN INTERACTIVE CRANIOFACIAL SURGERY PLANNING BY 3D SIMULATION AND VISUALIZATION

In craniofacial surgery careful preoperative planning is essential. Tr aditional preoperative work-up consists of cast model surgery, cephalo metric prediction tracing and analysis of photographs. Recently, we in troduced 3-dimensional (3D) computed tomography (CT) model surgery in our preoperative work-up and presurgical prediction of the postoperati ve result. However, only limited information can be extracted concerni ng soft tissue changes which are most important for the patients' post operative appearance. We propose a new system which will allow a preci se preoperative visualization of not only bony structures but also the soft tissue surfaces. 3D CT data of the skull are integrated with 3D surface data acquired by laser scanning. Based on the 3D CT data the b ony structures are segmented automatically and processed interactively to simulate the planned surgical procedure. Afterwards, the 3D soft t issue changes resulting from the shifting of bony segments are compute d. The postoperative appearance of the patient is visualized using com puter animation techniques.