Saving Face
Team uses artistic talent and cutting-edge tech to reproduce a patient's damaged skull exactly
BY ALEX DICKINSON
Their canvas is the human face.
A classically trained group of artists and sculptors in Ohio are revolutionizing facial reconstruction surgery with their customized cranial implants.
The Cleveland-based collective — Osteosymbionics — has perfected a method in which facial and cranial implants, for patients who have suffered everything from gunshot wounds to brain tumors that required major facial surgery, can be seamlessly "dropped in" a skull.
The technique, which employs an exact replica of a patient’s head, 3-D scanning technology and breathtaking artistic skill, has transformed the implant industry. Doctors previously had to mold implants during surgery, with unpredictable results. But Osteosymbionics is now supplying its face-saving implants to doctors and needy patients across America.
Resident artist David Hutson, 34, who studied ceramics at the Cleveland Institute of Art, said his training translated easily to medical implants.
"I was one of those kids that drew skulls all through his schoolbooks, so it was a perfect fit," Hutson said.
"With ceramics I did a lot of carving, and I've been drawing and sculpting my entire life.
"This work is much more strict than if I was creating a piece of art, but sometimes you do have to innovate to create a realistic look … and to help give some normalcy back to the recipient's life.”
The process begins with 3-D CAT scans, which Osteosymbionics transforms into an exact replica of a patient's skull. The team then decides whether to begin designing an implant “freehand” or with computer software. The goal is to implant a nearly exact replica of the missing facial bones.
Hutson's childhood friend Adam Zuch heads up the digital side, where the art-school graduate uses the “phantom tool” — a virtual carving stick — to fine-tune implants and make them more lifelike.
“It’s like virtual clay that’s been used to create everything from the animations in 'Toy Story' to the creatures for video games,” Zuch said.
"I can get what David makes, 3-D scan it into the system, where I add all the contours and details to make it really look human — as close to an exact replica of the missing bone as we can get.
“The skull is unique, like a fingerprint, and no injury is the same. You want it to be exact, because this is people’s faces we’re talking about. If someone needs our help, it means something really bad has happened in their lives.”
Peter Costantino, chief of head and neck surgery for the North Shore-LIJ Health System in New York, said Osteosymbionics implants give "unprecedented" results.
"In the beginning, we'd try to do this stuff freehand in the operating room, and that would be like freehanding the repair of a car bumper after an accident," said Costantino, who has more than 25 years experience in the field.
"Maybe you could get close, but it's not exactly right. Now it's like it's been stamped out of an exact mold that we drop into the patient in the operating room, and you can be very certain that you'll be getting a reliable construction that recreates the way the patient's skull looked prior to the injury."
Although they never get to meet the patients whose lives they change, the team at Osteosymbionics are reminded daily of why they love what they do.
Michael Nilsson, the team’s biomedical engineer consultant, said he struggles with seeing the injuries suffered, especially by children.
“It was very much a challenge for me in the beginning, seeing cases involving kids coming in,” he said.
“You see a 1- or 2-year-old in a car accident. We had a rodeo cowboy who was kicked in the face and a woman with a tumor on her forehead — it’s an insult to the human body that shouldn’t happen. Everyone wants to look good and, with some of these injuries, they can be very disfigured. We want to create a good cosmetic outcome to help normalize their life.”
Credit: The Daily (www.thedaily.com)
No comments:
Post a Comment