Evaluation of accuracy of virtual surgical planning for patient-specific pre-contoured plate in acetabular fracture fixation.

BACKGROUND: Acetabular fractures are amongst the most challenging fractures to treat because of complex anatomy. Open reduction and internal fixation remains the standard treatment for displaced acetabular fractures to achieve anatomical reduction as in any other intra-articular fracture. Patient-specific pre-contoured reconstruction plate template made by a pre-operative virtual surgical planning can be useful to respect patient's morphology, reduce surgical invasiveness and simplify the surgical procedure. Proper evaluation and surgical planning is necessary to achieve these goals. The goal of this study was to evaluate the outcomes of using virtual surgical planning and virtually pre-contoured plate template in comparison with the conventional method of intra-operative contouring of reconstruction plate for acetabular fracture fixation.

METHODS: Twenty-five patients were categorized into group A and B by computerized randomization. In group A (12 patients), CT-based virtual surgical planning was done using Mimics and 3-Matic software to form virtually pre-contoured plates, which were 3D printed to act as templates over which 3.5 mm reconstruction plates were manually contoured pre-operatively and used for fixation. In group B (13 patient), conventional method of intra-operative contouring to adapt the plate to the fracture region was followed. Blood loss, surgical time, reduction on X-rays and post-operative computed tomography were compared between two groups.

RESULTS: Duration of surgery and total blood loss were found to be less while reduction was found to satisfactory/anatomical in higher percentage of Group A than Group B patients.

CONCLUSIONS: Virtual surgical planning, patient-specific virtually pre-contoured plate template and 3D printing technology improve the outcomes of acetabular fracture surgery by reducing duration and invasiveness of surgery and improving the quality of reduction. However, studies with larger sample size are required to further validate it.