Clavicle Shape Modeling and Analysis for the Design of a Fracture Fixation Plate

The clavicle is among the most frequently fractured bones in the human body and there is an increasing number of indications for surgical treatment of clavicular fractures. Due to the complex shape of the clavicle and its large variability, the design of osteosynthesis hardware is a very challenging task. Extensive knowledge of the anatomy of the clavicle clearly contributes to the improvement of such hardware.

In this research, a methodology ia proposed to facilitate the investigation of the anatomical shape of the clavicle of a given population. A method is developed to establish a dense correspondence for a population of clavicles, based on surface parameterization. On the obtained correspondence, group-based local statistical analyses are performed to assess shape differences with respect to sex, direction, and date of birth. The correspondence is also employed to develop a set of precontoured osteosynthesis plates, covering the population under consideration with small error. The devised method is based on clustering and extracts a set of precontoured osteosynthesis plates from the distribution of clavicles in shape space. Experiments on a population of 90 clavicles were conducted to demonstrate the developed methods. The quality of the established correspondence and derived plates was also assessed.