I-Corps: Imaging Software for Long-Bone Fracture Alignment

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a software-driven visual aid for surgeons treating femur fractures to improve alignment and prevent reoperations. Approximately 350,000 proximal femur fractures and 65,000 femur shaft fractures occur in the United States annually. Due to the aging population, this number of fractures is increasing and is anticipated to double by the year 2050. Current surgical procedures are manual, and surgeons experience a myriad of complications to align femur fractures, including difficulty in achieving accurate reduction, subsequent malalignment of bone fragments, high x-ray radiation, nonunion complications, and soft tissue damage. Malalignment is a serious complication with long-bone fractures, with a malalignment of 15° or more after femur fracture fixation occurring in 28% of patients. Using the proposed imaging software, the surgeon may have more accurate vision and be able to track the position of the bone fragments during the surgery. The tracking system may prevent the trial-and-error approach for fracture alignment and reduce the time of the surgery. By using the proposed imaging software, the surgeon may check the length and rotation of the aligned bone intraoperatively, which may prevent malalignment and subsequent reoperations.This I-Corps project is based on the development of an imaging software to aid long-bone fracture surgery to improve alignment and prevent reoperations. Using the proposed imaging software, surgeons may have a precise sense of the bone segments' positions in space relative to each other. Optical trackers are used to find the position of 2 rods that are attached to the distal and proximal bone fragments. Image registration is then performed on the X-ray images to find the exact three dimensional (3D) position of the bone segments. In addition, computer tomography data of the unbroken bone is used to providing data to align the fractured bone. Using the proposed imaging software, the surgeon may track the bone position in real-time while manipulating the bone into the final desired position guided by the image of the healthy bone. This 3D vision may provide an advantage for surgeons in comparison to the 2D X-ray images that are used today to check the bone position and alignment.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.