Virtual planning of hip operations and individual adaption of endoprostheses in orthopaedic surgery

The introduction of virtual reality techniques in medicine opens up new pos sibilities for the planning of interventions. The presented software system for virtual operation planning in orthopaedic surgery (VIRTOPS) enables th e virtual preoperative 3D planning and simulation of pelvis and hip operati ons. It is used to plan operations of bone tumours with endoprosthetic reco nstruction of the hip based on multimodal image information. The operation and the endosprothetic reconstruction of the pelvis are simulated using vir tual reality techniques. Stereoscopic visualisation techniques and 3D input devices support the 3D interaction with the virtual 3D models. The main ta sk of the preoperative planning process is the individual design of an anat omically adaptable modular prosthesis. The placement and the design of the endoprosthesis are supported by different functions and visualisation techn iques. The resulting 3D images and movies can be used for the documentation of the operation planning procedure, as well as, for the preoperative info rmation of the patient. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights r eserved.