An approach for estimation of the surface area of scalp flap based on the characteristic parameters after decompressive craniectomy

An approach for the estimation of the surface area of scalp flap after decompressive craniectomy is presented in this paper to avoid the complications after cranioplasty since the area of the implanted prosthesis such as the titanium alloy is large than the surface area of the scalp flap. The estimation is based on the simulation model of skull with the characteristic parameters obtained from clinical statistics by using Mimics and the integration method to calculate the surface area of the scalp flap where the bone flap was removed for the relief of intractable intracranial hypertension in patients with severe traumatic brain injury by considering the sunken degree of the brain and scalp flap. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed method, the comparison of the results obtained from the clinical statistical and simulation study is carried out. The results indicate that the computed value of the scalp flap area obtained from the simulation is consistent quite well with the results of clinical statistics.