R_Bibb_Medical_Modelling_The_Application_of_Adv.pdf

154 Medical modelling
6.31 The surgical guide and supports.
6.32 The fi nished surgical guide.
them to the distraction devices, the manufacturer of the devices would not
allow the modifi cations.
The guide was ‘therefore’ fi nalised, supported and built as described
above. The support structure can be seen in Fig. 6.31. The drilling positions
for the distraction devices were planned on an SL model of the patient. The
SLM TM surgical guide was then fi tted to the model and the drilling sites
transferred to it. The fi nal guide is shown in Fig. 6.32.
6.6.5 Results
The surgical guides made to date were all assessed by the clinicians before
going to surgery and all were deemed satisfactory for surgical use. All of
the guides used in theatre so far have displayed good accuracy and fi tted
the patients’ anatomy fi rmly and securely, as expected. The quality of the
surgical guide fi t for this particular case was assessed by an experienced
maxillofacial prosthetist. This was achieved by fi tting it to a SL model of
the patient’s facial skeletal anatomy where it was found to show excellent
fi t. Figure 6.33 shows the guide in situ in theatre.