Pre-operative and Post-operative transformation of the patient
Nagpur based MedTech company LUCID Implants assisted surgeons to perform a complex facial reconstruction surgery – bilateral TMJ Ankylosis – for a 26-year-old female patient. At the age of 5, she had a traumatic injury due to a fall from a trolley truck, after which she experienced a reduction in mouth opening, which gradually progressed to the present condition.
The surgery was performed and led by Dr. Nitin Bhola, M.D, Ph.D., FIBOMS, Head of the Oral and Maxillofacial Department at Datta Meghe Institute Medical Sciences (DMIMS) at Wardha.
“The patient has TMJ Ankylosis, i.e., her lower jaw is fused with the upper jaw. We generally have a normal mouth opening of 2.5-4 cms, but in such cases, the patient can open his or her mouth only up to a few millimeters.” Says Dr. Bhola while explaining the case. “This makes it extremely difficult for the patient to eat, talk, breathe and sleep. Moreover, facial aesthetics also looks very much unnatural – asymmetrical face due to hypoplastic (small-sized) mandible (lower jaw).”
There are very few surgical practice procedures more challenging than the repair of a head and neck, i.e., craniomaxillofacial (CMF) deformities. They are ‘exceptionally complex,’ this is an area where organs, vessels, and nerves meet. The face is not only the index of the mind but also houses vital organs like the brain and eyes, making treatment of facial injuries a complicated affair. It relies on a very artistic appreciation of facial aesthetics, proportion, symmetry, and balance. The success of the facial reconstructive procedure is primarily based on the surgeon’s presurgical planning and expertise, but a wrong step in treatment can cause lifelong trauma. Intricate, often time-consuming, “eye match” manual techniques have been historically employed to obtain, at best, satisfactory results.
“Thanks to the team at LUCID Implants, most of our presurgical planning and practice was guided with their technical capabilities.” Added Dr. Bhola. The team used sophisticated computer software to design customized implants and associated single-use patient-specific instrumentation, like surgical guides and life-like 3D printed replicas of patient anatomy directly from their medical images (CT Scans), making such complex cases simple and delivering excellent workability for realistic operation planning.
Dr. Bhola and his team in operating room
In one-of-its-kind, complex six-hour surgery, Dr. Nitin Bhola and his team surgically released the bony bilateral TMJ Ankylosis and reconstructed the region with Patient-specific PEEK TMJ prostheses. Within six months, her facial aesthetics became normal and fully functional. She can now talk, eat, breathe, and sleep properly with natural facial aesthetics.
USE THE 3DEXPERIENCE® PLATFORM FROM IDEA TO INCISION
Implant design on 3DEXPERIENCE Platform
LUCID Implants, accelerated by the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab, the open innovation laboratory that has been selected the most disruptive projects that positively impact people and society, leveraged 3DEXPERIENCE® Platform as a system of operations with applications to design customized implants, paperless manufacturing, and cloud quality management system to maintain end-to-end traceability. “The process chain of a successful personalized medical device solution requires the involvement of multiple stakeholders, like a clinician, implant designer, simulation engineer, production engineer, quality manager, sales executive, and payor. Using the 3DEXPERIENCE® platform, all our production, simulation, and operational tasks can be integrated into a singular workflow for seamless alignment from concept to patient fit,” said Prashanth Ray, co-founder of LUCID Implants.
