A framework for craniofacial surgery simulation based on pre-specified target face configurations

This paper presents a novel method for assisting surgeons in automatically computing an optimal surgical plan by directly specifying the desired correction to a facial outline. First, the desired facial appearance is prescribed using a 3D sculpturing tool, while the cut regions of the skull are defined based on facial anatomy. Then, the deformation of the face meshes is performed using an improved biomechanical model in which virtual external forces are driven by the displacements corresponding to the differences of node coordinates between the original and specified face meshes, and free nodes and fixed nodes are defined in terms of the contact surfaces between the soft tissues and the bones within the cut regions. Finally, the shape of the contact surfaces is updated following the deformation of the soft tissues. After registering the deformable contact surfaces and the cut surfaces, the final positions of the cut bones are estimated. Evaluation of preliminary experimental results quantitatively demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed approach.