Percutaneous Surgery Templating for Wrist Fractures
Orthopaedic surgeries in itself are extremely case dependent; with percutaneous surgeries, it adds another element of subjectivity even further. Percutaneous surgeries make use of Kirschner wires to move and hold fractured bones in place to allow for the body to naturally heal and recover from the damage.
The project posed to create a surgery template to remove ambiguity in the surgery. This would ultimately lead to many improved metrics such as improved patient outcome and more importantly, reduced radiation exposure for the orthopaedic surgeon.
I work on the imaging section of the project, making use of OpenCV and MATLAB to process X-rays for the templating angles. To better understand the implications of a surgery template, I also looked into the health economics of the surgery. This involved costing the current surgery and fabricating the cost changes as a result of the new procedure.
Skills Used
Research - Systematic Review
Part of the project was to carry out a simplified systematic review to fully understand the scope of work. This included research into the surgery itself as well as current patient-specific templating methods. The systematic review provided a solid foundation to move forward for the project and develop based on industry-level knowledge.
Image Processing with OpenCV
The results of the image processing is parsed through as input for the template design. Most importantly, the output of the image processing is the kirschner wire entry angles to allow for the patient-specific template to be designed.
Health Economics Analysis
To fully appreciate the implications of a change to the surgery, a health economics analysis was carried out. The analysis included costing up the current procedure to obtain the full cost breakdown, then the changes delivered by the template were produced. The results of the analysis was promising as it showed that costs could be reduced while also improving the outcomes.
