Abstract
The skull defect can be made after the trauma, oncologic problems or neurosurgery. The skull reconstruction has been the challenging issue in craniofacial fields for a long time. So far the skull reconstruction with autogenous bone would be the standard. Although the autogenous bone would be the ideal one for skull reconstruction, donor site morbidity would be the inevitable problem in many cases. Meanwhile various types of allogenic and alloplastic materials have been also used. However, skull reconstruction with many alloplastic material have produced no less complications including infection, exposure, and delayed wound healing. Because the 3D printing technique evolved so fast that 3D printed titanium implant were possible recently. The aim of this trial is to try to restore the original skull anatomy as possible using the 3D printed titanium implant, based on the mirrored three dimensional CT images based on the computer simulation. Preoperative computed tomography (CT) data were processed for the patient and a rapid prototyping (RP) model was produced. At the same time, the uninjured side was mirrored and superimposed onto the traumatized side, to create a mirror-image of the RP model. And we fabricated Titanium implant to reconstruct three-dimensional orbital structure in advance, using the 3D printer. This prefabricated Titanium-implant was then inserted onto the defected skull and fixed. Three dimensional printing technique of titanium material based on the computer simulation turned out to be very successful in this patient. Individualized approach for each patient could be an ideal way to manage the traumatic patients in near future.
