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The extraction of the main features of a fractured bone area enables a posterior virtual reproduction of the same fracture on other bones. The utilisation of the fracture zone for other applications is almost an unexplored field of research. Recreating a given fracture on other areas or bones can be directly applied to medical training programmes of traumatologists or to automatic bone fracture reduction algorithms. This paper is focused on the process of generating a fracture pattern taking computed tomography scans as a starting point. A set of alternative representations, for different purposes, is presented and discussed. A study of several clinical cases is analysed. Finally, the potential usages of bone fracture patterns are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The simulation of realistic fracture cases on geometric models representing bone structures is almost an unexplored field of research. These fractured models have several applications in computer-assisted methods that support specialist in fracture reduction interventions. For instance, the generation of specific fracture patterns can provide uncommon cases for training simulators or can be used to improve machine-learning applications. This paper focuses on the issues to be considered in the generation of fractures on geometric models that represent bone structures. The main recent contributions for fracturing geometric models are examined and the challenges in terms of the application of real bone fracture patterns on geometric models are presented. Moreover, different alternatives for the evaluation of the results obtained by the geometric fracture generation algorithms when applied to bone structures are discussed. Finally, the potential applications of the virtual generation of specific bone fractures are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of computational techniques to help specialists in the treatment of bone injuries and diseases is widespread. These techniques usually require 3D triangle meshes representing bone fragments as input. On the one hand, bone fragments can be visualised in a more effective way. On the other hand, computer-assisted techniques are provided with models that make the application of geometric algorithms easier. The suitability of the method utilised to generate the triangle mesh will depend on the computational techniques in which it will be used. In this paper, a study is performed in order to test the applicability of some mesh generation methods to model bone fragments: Marching Cubes, Ball-pivoting, Poisson reconstruction and Algebraic Point Set Surface. In a first step, bone fragments were segmented from CT scans, and external contours were extracted from the segmented regions. After that, the vertices of each external contour were grouped in order to form the point cloud used as input by the mesh generation methods. Finally, these methods were tested and their main benefits and shortcomings were exposed. The obtained results manifested the performance of each method depending on the fracture type and the special features of the data obtained from CT stacks. In addition, the suitability of each method to be used in computer-assisted medical procedures was analysed and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]