Rapid prototyping technique applied to surgical guidance of second reconstruction surgery of defective mandible

Craniofacial surgery had high requirements for precision, because it related to the patient's appearance. A fibular free flap was one way of filling a bony hole in either the upper or lower jaw. It was one of the common ways of replacing bone that had been removed for cancer treatment. Mandibular reconstruction surgery repair was one of the issues challenging, because of the complexity of the mandible structure. Routine treatment was manual trimming Titanium alloy plate according to the size and the shape of the patient damage spot. This operation was complex, the time of surgery is long. The success of the operation depended on the doctor's experience. Meanwhile, titanium alloy plate was easy to appear wrinkle and warp, which causeed the surgery defeat. In this study, a method was proposed to calculate the fitting of the fibula and the mandible by taking the distance from the points of the mandible to the basis mandible plane and symmetry plane measurement. A failed back surgery patients using routine treatment had been performing Successful surgery using rapid prototyping.