Surgery planning is the preoperative method of pre-visualising a surgical intervention, in order to predefine the surgical steps. It is essential in the neurosurgery, oral-maxillofacial surgery and tumour resections throughout the body. Surgery planning is also common practice for other planned surgical interventions as it enables the prior determination and modelling of the risk regions, seeking to obtain the best outcome with fewer risks for the patient. The basis for such planning steps is 3D image datasets acquired through a CT or MRI and commercially available software. As each patient anatomy differs considerably from each other, each case is individually analysed and visualized in both 2D slices and 3D reconstructions. This can be further enhanced by using a 3D printer to make exact replicas of organs that doctors can use to plan surgery, and even do practice operations beforehand. In the special case of tumour resection surgeries in the Cranio-Maxillofacial-region, such a handy tumour and bone model can make a huge different in the surgery output and post-surgical recovery. By using the physical model of the organ to be operated is it possible to confer with colleagues for their input and examine the anatomy to achieve the best surgical outcome with less risk. Without the 3D model surgeons are less certain about the operation which leads to make naturally to making a larger incision that could possibly cause more pain and a longer recovery time for the patient. Using a 3D model removes some of the doubt of the surgical procedure. About project: Inova DE GmbH has initiated the OrganPrint project, funded within the framework of the FABulous program and its purpose is to design a medical software interface for the surgeon to segment and delineate the anatomy of the patient that should be printed out of the CT and MRI images, coupled with an on-line service for 3D printing of the organ that would be delivered to his installations within days.
