Three‐dimensional printed guides for screw placement in equine navicular bones

Abstract

Objective: To determine the influence of a custom 3D-printed guide for placement of cortical bone screws in the equine navicular bone.Study design: Ex vivo study. Sample population: Eight pairs of normal adult equine forelimbs.Methods: A 3.5 × 55 mm cortical screw was placed in the longitudinal axis of each intact navicular bone. Screws were placed with a 3D-printed guide (3D) in one bone and with a traditional aiming device (AD) in the contralateral bone within each pair. Duration of surgery and the number of fluoroscopy images were compared between techniques. Screw placement was subjectively evaluated by gross examination and scored by three boarded veterinary surgeons.Results: The use of a 3D-printed guide reduced the duration of surgery by 6.6 min (±1.5 min) compared to traditional screw placement (20.7 min ± 4.8 min, p < .01). Fewer peri-operative fluoroscopic images were obtained when the 3D guide was used (18 images ± 2.6 images vs. 40 images ± 5.1, p < .01). No difference was detected in navicular screw placement. Conclusion:The use of a 3D guide decreased the time required to place screws and the number of intraoperative images taken without affecting screw placement in intact navicular bones.Clinical relevance: 3D-printed guides can aid in the study, practice, and execution of surgical procedures reducing surgical time and radiation exposure throughout the operative period achieving similar results to those obtained with a conventional approach.

Immediate pre-operative computed tomography for surgical planning of equine fracture repair: A retrospective review of 55 cases

“…A previous study describing intramodality and intermodality agreement between radiography and CT, highlighted the superior nature of CT for fracture diagnosis in distal limbs [5]. There are several studies describing the use of CT in a small cohort of single fracture types [3,[6][7][8][9]. There are also studies describing the use of intra-operative CT for a variety of fracture types [4,10,11] however, intra-operative CT is not widely available and poses a different set of benefits and challenges in comparison to pre-operative CT. A previous study described the use of pre-operative standing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for surgical planning of fracture repair [2].…”

Low‐field MRI findings and follow‐up of central tarsal bone fractures in four non‐racehorses

“…Fibrous union of distal tarsal bone fractures in racehorses has previously been suggested and was considered as adequate in this location because of the limited motion in distal tarsal joints (Murphey et al, 2000). Fibrous union of fractures without lameness has also been described in other sites in horses, such as the palmar processes of the distal phalanx (Robson et al, 2008), the accessory carpal bone (Dyson, 1990), the proximal sesamoid bones (Busschers et al, 2008), the navicular bone (Perez-Jimenez et al, 2021) and the third trochanter of the femur (Bertoni et al, 2013;Shields et al, 2015).…”

Proximal femoral deformity correction and total hip arthroplasty in a dog using 3D printed custom guides

“…Virtual ostectomy plan design and CSG designs were similar to what has been previously described, 11,[20][21] but with key additional features. The novel design characteristics of the guides reported here included the ability to simultaneously hold the ostectomy in temporary reduction while allowing the drilling of predetermined screw trajectories for permanent LCP fixation via predrilled pilot-holes.…”