Method and system for planning implant component position

A computer-implemented method for positioning and displaying a virtual implant component relative to a 3D volume of scan data representing a patient structure, comprising:

• displaying first, second and third 2D views of scan data within a graphical user interface on a computer screen, wherein said 2D views are based on the 3D volume of scan data, wherein the second 2D view of scan data is provided by a processor from the 3D volume of scan data at an angle relative to the first 2D view of scan data, and the third 2D view of scan data is provided by the processor from the 3D volume of scan data at an angle relative to the first 2D view of scan data and the second 2D view of scan data;
• receiving first positional information for the virtual implant component relative to the first 2D view of scan data through the graphical user interface displaying the first 2D view of scan data, said first positional information having a maximum of two degrees of freedom;
• receiving second positional information for the virtual implant component relative to the second 2D view of scan data through the graphical user interface displaying the second 2D view of scan data, said second positional information having a maximum of two degrees of freedom;
• receiving third positional information for the virtual implant component relative to the third 2D view of scan data through the graphical user interface displaying the third 2D view of scan data, said third positional information having a maximum of two degrees of freedom;
• and
• displaying a 3D representation of the virtual implant component within the graphical user interface relative to a 3D representation of the patient anatomy in a position defined by the first and second positional information, wherein said 3D representation is provided by the processor based on a combination of said first, second and third positional information, and comprises positional information for three different dimensions.

A computer-implemented method for positioning a virtual implant component relative to a 3D volume of scan data of a patient stored in a memory, the stored scan data including scan data representing a boney anatomy of the patient, said method comprising:

• generating, with a processor, a first 2D view of scan data based on the stored 3D volume of the scan data;
• generating, with the processor, a second 2D view of scan data based on the stored 3D volume of scan data, wherein the second 2D view of scan data is provided by the processor from the 3D volume of scan data according to instructions stored in memory at an angle relative to the first 2D view of scan data;
• separately displaying each of said first and second 2D views of scan data within a graphical user interface;
• receiving, in memory user input through the graphical user interface displaying the first 2D view of scan data, first positional information for the virtual implant component relative to the first 2D view of scan data, said first positional information limited by the processor to a maximum of two degrees of freedom;
• receiving, in memory user input through the graphical user interface displaying the second 2D view of scan data, second positional information for the virtual implant component relative to the second 2D view of scan data, said second positional information limited by the processor to a maximum of two degrees of freedom;
• combining said first positional information and said second positional information with the processor to position the virtual implant component relative to the 3D volume of scan data and generate 3D positional information for the virtual implant component including three different dimensions;
• storing the 3D positional information for the virtual implant component in memory;
• displaying a 3D representation of the virtual implant component within the graphical user interface separately relative to each of the first and second 2D views of scan data, in a position defined by said 3D positional information;
• and
• displaying a position adjustment object with the graphical user interface relative to each of said first and second 2D views of scan data, said position adjustment object associated with the virtual implant component and being moveable in a single orthogonal dimension at a time within each of the displayed first and second 2D views of scan data.