🚀 go-pugleaf

Montpellier (France),  May 3rd 1999

Dear Sir

You will be very kind to distribute to the BIOMCH-L the following message:

Many thanks.

Yours Faithfully,


Dear list members,

1) We are currently engaged in a biomedical research project, the aim of
which is to successfully reconstruct the mandible (jawbone), of patients
suffering from deformations therein, by a process known as Mandibular
Distraction. This involves making a surgical cut through the mandible and
using a distraction device which is surgically attached to the bone to
elongate (or widen as the case may be) the mandible.
Have you some experiences on this technique, how much are the force used to
distract and what is the distraction speed ?


2) To avoid post-operative complications from this delicate procedure,
we've decided to attempt to simulate the procedure using AutoCAD R14 and 3D
Studio Max 2. We're hoping that this could be acheived by taking
radiographs of the jawbone using roentgenographic cephalometry and
importing them into AutoCAD/3D Studio to rebuild the picture of the
jawbone. In this way, we would have sections of the jawbone and the 3D
modeller could then be used to 'bridge the gaps' as it were, giving a solid
3D image which can then be manipulated.

The problem is that so far we've been unable to track down the command
which would enable us to bridge the gap between two arbitrary shapes. To
your knowledge, is there a command or a means of extrusion that we can use
to join the two 2D sections of the mandible in order to build a 3D model ?
Moreover, which would be the most accurate means of importing the
radiographic image ?
If it is not possible with AutoCad, what soft is it possible to use ?.

If this technique cannot be employed then it would result in the
time-consuming mapping of manibular features from the radiograph and then
transferring them into AutoCAD/3D Studio as a series of 3D coordinates and
vectors in order to achieve the desired model.

Would you have any suggestions or advice on how we should proceed ?

Yours Sincerely,


Jean Paul Micallef, PhD
Medical Researcher
INSERM ADR 08
99 Rue du Puech Villa
France, 34197 Montpellier Cedex 5
Email: biomeca@cnusc.fr

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