Method of designing patient-specific cranioplasty implants

A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

• extracting pixel data from a DICOM file;
• generating a virtual skull model based on the pixel data;
• identifying a mid-sagittal plane of the virtual skull model;
• identifying an inferior boundary of the virtual skull model;
• identifying a surgical hole in the virtual skull model;
• mirroring a reference side of the virtual skull model onto a surgical hole side of the virtual skull model;
• subtracting the surgical hole side from the mirrored reference side to generate a virtual cranial implant;
• and
• generating a virtual two-part mold based on the virtual cranial implant.

A method comprising:

• receiving a DICOM file containing image data representative of an image of a patient's head through a graphical user interface coupled to a processor and displayed on a display;
• generating a virtual skull model based on the image data with the processor;
• identifying a mid-sagittal plane of the virtual skull model with the processor;
• identifying a surgical hole in the virtual skull model with the processor;
• mirroring a reference side of the virtual skull model onto a surgical hole side of the virtual skull model with the processor;
• subtracting the surgical hole side from the mirrored reference side to generate a virtual cranial implant with the processor;
• scaling the virtual cranial implant by a user defined scale factor through the graphical user interface;
• generating a virtual two-part mold based on the scaled virtual cranial implant with the processor;
• generating a pin-lock mechanism on the virtual two-part mold with the processor, the pin-lock mechanism comprising a plurality of pin-receiving members disposed on one half of the two-part mold and a plurality of pins disposed on the other half of the two-part mold;
• specifying a length of the plurality of pins of the pin-lock mechanism through the graphical user interface;
• generating an STL file of the virtual two-part mold and pin-lock mechanism with the processor;
• printing a physical two-part mold and pin-lock mechanism from the STL file using an additive manufacturing apparatus;
• and
• forming a physical cranial implant using the physical two-part mold and pin-lock mechanism.