Apparatus, method and system for providing customizable bone implants

A method for generating a custom implant for insertion into a patient, the method comprising the steps of:

• generating, using a bone scanning device, a three-dimensional digital representation of a selected bone of the patient;
• by scanning the patient's bone, wherein the digital representation of the bone includes at least data identifying different areas of relative bone density and porosity of the scanned patient's bone;
• generating a three-dimensional model of the custom implant using at least the data obtained from the three-dimensional digital representation of the selected bone of the patient having the at least data identifying different areas of relative bone density and porosity of the scanned patient's bone;
• and
• manufacturing, a physical copy of the three-dimensional model of the custom implant which includes substantially similar areas of relative density and porosity as the scanned bone.

A method for generating a custom implant in the form of a femoral stem for insertion into a patient and for calculating an implant cavity for receiving the implant, the method comprising the steps of:

• generating, using a bone scanning device, a three-dimensional digital representation of a patient's femur;
• by scanning the femur wherein the digital representation of the femur includes at least data identifying different areas of relative bone density and porosity of the scanned femur;
• generating a three-dimensional model of the femoral stem using at least the data obtained from the three-dimensional digital representation of the patient's femur having the at least data identifying different areas of relative bone density and porosity, wherein the three-dimensional model of the femoral stem includes substantially similar areas of relative density and porosity as the scanned femur;
• manufacturing the custom implant which comprises a physical copy of the three-dimensional model of the femoral stem;
• and
• based on both the three-dimensional digital representation of the patient's femur and on the three-dimensional model of the femoral stem, generating a cut plan which comprises a data file that contains an instruction set for removing bone from the femur of the patient so as to permit insertion of the custom implant.

A system for generating a custom implant, the system comprising:

• a bone scanner that is configured to obtain bone data from a selected bone of a patient;
• a processor configured with code executing therein to transform the bone data into a three-dimensional representation of the patient's bone, the processor further configured to generate, using a stem modeling application, a three-dimensional digital model of the custom implant for insertion into the bone, the three-dimensional representation of the bone including providing different areas of relative porosity and density, the processor additionally configured to generate an excavation protocol for excavating bone from the selected bone such that a percent contact between an inner surface of a cortical bone region in the patient's bone and an outer surface of the custom implant is at least 50%;
• a manufacturing device configured to generate the custom implant from the three-dimensional digital model of the custom implant;
• and
• a processor controlled bone excavation device configured to excavate bone from the patient's bone according to an excavation protocol.

A computer implemented method for generating a three-dimensional model of a custom femoral stem, the method comprising the steps of:

• accessing a three-dimensional scan of a femur of a patient, wherein the scan is configured to provide information regarding the porosity and pore size of the scanned femur;
• generating, using code executing in a processor, a three-dimensional model of the patient's femur using at least the information obtained from the three-dimensional scan having the porosity and pore size of the scanned femur of the patient, where the three-dimensional model of the femur includes an extraction portion and a remaining portion, the extraction portion corresponding to an anticipated removal of material from the femur;
• and
• building, using code executing in the processor, a three-dimensional model of the custom femoral stem configured to replace the extraction portion in the three-dimensional model of the femur, wherein the three-dimensional model of the custom femoral stem is configured to match the porosity and pore size features of the femur model using finite element analysis.

A computer implemented method for generating a three-dimensional model of a femur from scan data comprising the steps of:

• accessing scan data from a bone scanning device, wherein the scan data includes a collection of pixel data depicting the femur;
• applying a threshold mask to the pixels representing the femur within the scan data;
• augmenting the threshold mask applied to pixels representing a femoral head using a shape modeling algorithm;
• identifying the pixels corresponding to a femoral neck using an intensity threshold operation;
• eroding the pixel intensity values for pixels not corresponding to the femoral head and the femoral neck and updating the pixels classified by the shape modeling algorithm;
• and
• outputting a three-dimensional model of the femur.

A method for digitally generating a custom femoral head and neck, the method comprising the steps of:

• generating a three-dimensional digital representation of a patient's femur;
• wherein the digital representation of the femur includes at least data identifying different areas of relative bone density and porosity of the femur;
• and
• generating a three-dimensional model of a femoral head and neck for use as an implant using at least the data obtained from the three-dimensional digital representation of the patient's femur having the at least data identifying different areas of relative bone density and porosity of the femur.