BurnCase 3D – Realistic Adaptation of 3-Dimensional Human Body Models

Abstract

Abstract. This paper presents the results of the research project BurnCase in the field of realistic and anatomically correct deformations of 3D models of the human body. The project goal is to develop a software system named BurnCase 3D, which supports and enhances the documentation and diagnosis of human burn injuries. The medical treatment of burn victims strongly depends on size, depth, degree and location of the burnt skin. The size of the affected region is usually expressed as a percentage of the total body surface area (TBSA). Standardized 2D charts (e.g. Lund and Browder, Rule-Of-Nines, etc.) help to determine the percentage of the burnt surface area in relation to the total body surface area. However, body proportions highly influence the distribution of body surface area along the body [Livingston and Lee, 2000]. Thus, standard charts can only give rough approximations of the burnt surface area compared to the real size of an injury on a specific patient. The software system BurnCase 3D will enhance this commonly applied 2D approximation process by introducing a 3D model of the patient's body. This 3D model provides a higher accordance to the real patient's surface area than any 2D chart does and allows determining the burnt surface areas more exactly. BurnCase 3D is based on an extendable library of currently 7 standard models representing different sex, age and body shape. In order to meet the physical constitution of the real patient, the best fitting model is chosen and has to be adapted according to the patient's height and weight. There exist several possibilities of adapting a 3D model to these parameters. This paper describes the three methods of body adaptations that are realized in the software system BurnCase 3D based on the thesis of Doris Siegl ( [Siegl, 2003]).

The Importance of a 3D-Based Approach With Personalized Models for Accurately Assessing TBSA

“…Indeed, as it can be seen in the Fig. 3, the modeling algorithm of BurnCase 3D 14 and BAI 21 are based on anthropometric formulas such as Eq. 3 below.…”

“…However, the fact that predefined models are only adapted to the patient's weight and height means there is an unknown offset between the patient's real BSA and the BSA of the 3D model, which has not been evaluated 22 . The model selected is still an approximation of the patient's actual body constitution which sometime diverges from it's real BSA 14 . Nevertheless, the studies of Giretzlehner et al 3 and Parvizi et al 16 have highlighted the potential of computer-aider systems such as BurnCase 3D to improve TBSA assessment and inter-rater reliability for burns below 20% TBSA.…”

“…An improvement to these tools would be to take into account the correlation between different human morphologies. As suggested by Dirnberger, Giretzlehner 14 , another approach whose model deformation algorithm relies on measurements entered by the surgeon should be considered.…”

BurnCalc assessment study of computer-aided individual three-dimensional burn area calculation

“…For both the BurnCase 3D [14][15][16] and EPRI 3D Burn Vision [12], % TBSA was determined via default stored models in a library adjusted by data input (e.g., age, sex, height). Operators selected similar models and performed burn representation by outlining burn triangles with a paintbrush.…”