Design of an assistance device for orthognathic surgery - a case study

Tran Duy, Khanh [UCL] Olszewski, Raphaël [UCL] Herman, Benoît [UCL] Reychler, Hervé [UCL] Raucent, Benoît [UCL]

Computer assisted surgery devices are numerous and expanding. Their design is particular due to the multi-disciplinarity required by this specialty: the medical and engineering worlds. Our objective is to outline our experience in the field through the design of an assistance device for orthognathic surgery. Starting from the initial demand of the surgeon, we briefly expose the design process and the mistakes made. The difficulties lie in the function determination including medical and technical aspects, the strong function dependence and moreover the communication between engineer and surgeons. Spanning discipline boundaries is thus very important. Based on this experience, we provide an analysis of our errors as well as some possible approaches to reduce such problems.