Applications of medical rapid prototyping assisted customized surgical guides in complex surgeries

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to provide an overview of applications of medical rapid prototyping (MRP)-assisted customized surgical guides (CSGs) and shows the potential of this technology in complex surgeries. This review paper also reports two case studies from open literature where MRP-assisted CSGs have been successfully used in complex surgeries.

Design/methodology/approach

Key publications from the past two decades have been reviewed.

Findings

This study concludes that the use of MRP-assisted CSGs improves the accuracy of surgery. Additionally, MRP-assisted CSGs make the surgery much faster, accurate and cheaper than any other technique. The outcome based on literature review and two case studies strongly suggested that MRP-assisted CSGs might become part of a standard protocol in the medical sector to operate the various complex surgeries, in the near future.

Practical implications

Advanced technologies like radiology, image processing, virtual surgical planning (VSP), computer-aided design (CAD) and MRP made it possible to fabricate the CSGs. MRP-assisted CSGs can easily transfer the VSP into the actual surgery.

Originality/value

This paper is beneficial to study the development and applications of MRP-assisted CSGs in complex surgeries.

Citation

Dahake, S.W., Kuthe, A.M., Mawale, M.B. and Bagde, A.D. (2016), "Applications of medical rapid prototyping assisted customized surgical guides in complex surgeries", Rapid Prototyping Journal, Vol. 22 No. 6, pp. 934-946. https://doi.org/10.1108/RPJ-02-2015-0021