A computer simulation breakthrough could mean fewer medical complications and better surgical outcomes for patients undergoing hip, knee or spinal implant surgery.
Each year surgeons across Europe perform a staggering 900,000 hip, knee and spinal implant operations. Implant surgery is one of the most remarkable advances in medical science. Such operations restore increased mobility and a vastly improved quality of life to millions of Europeans.
Implant surgery also has one of the most remarkable success rates in medical practice, with reliable, predictable outcomes and very few complications. But it is not complication free.
"About 10 per cent of operations have complications, often requiring a new implant, or a further surgery," explains Dr. Ing. Ruben Lafuente, technical manager of the Spanish IT consulting firm Adapting S.L. and co-ordinator of the OrthoSim project. "It means increased pain and inconvenience, a drain on human resources and of course it is expensive, too."
Enter the EU-funded OrthoSim project. Set up to develop an orthopaedic surgery planning tool, OrthoSim has developed a platform that can significantly reduce the risk of post-op complications, as well as provide a means for testing new implant devices, the researchers claim. And in the very near future the platform will provide the base for a new surgical training tool.
The OrthoSim platform is a system using computer software to create anatomical and implant simulations. The simulation models are based on the work of two leading European biomechanics research centres.
"Our lumbar spinal region model is the result of over 20 years of research at the Laboratoire de Biomecanique of L'Ecole Nationale Superieure d'Arts et Metiers in Paris," explains Lafuente. "It was enhanced and complemented by a lumbar implant model provided by the Instituto de Biomecánica de Valencia in Spain."
These models were combined to provide a reliable simulation of the interface between the artificial implant and the living tissue, providing surgeons with vital pre-op information.
"With this service, a surgeon or implant engineer can effectively call on the expertise of the best people in any field of orthopaedic surgery, where biomechanical simulation can offer new insights for patient care," Lafuente says.
Even better, the tool can be used to study the suitability of new implant devices and can help pinpoint any problems with the design at an early stage.
"Implant designers get the opportunity to test their new designs initially without the need for actual implantations," notes Lafuente. "It will mean better implant designs at an early stage, cutting costs and research time, as well as improving outcomes early on."
Solving the integration problem
The models are linked together and are hosted at an online service. Integrating the various models and algorithms into a unified platform was a difficult computer science problem to solve.