Le Fort I Osteotomy - Final Project Proposal

For my final animation project I plan to construct an educational surgical video that focuses on an Orthognathic surgery known as Le Fort I osteotomy. This type of surgery involves manipulating the facial skeleton to restore normal anatomical and functional relationships in patients who have dentofacial anomalies. This animation will focus on a specific part of the surgery that involves sawing of the posterior wall of the maxilla.

Background:

Maxillary osteotomy is performed in an extremely vascular region where bleeding control is frequently not possible until completion of the procedure. To minimize damage, and understanding of the blood supply to the mobilized maxilla is crucial. In medical textbooks that illustrate this procedure, few have shown the structures that lie in the region where the cut is made. A surgeon’s knowledge of this area comes from reading through copious amounts of textbooks and research papers.

The overall aim will be to focus in on anatomical structures that are hidden to the surgeon’s eye whilst doing the operation. Therefore, as a result, surgical residents viewing this animation will have a better idea of the vessels, nerves, and tissue that are located around the areas that will be sawed.

There are many components to this animation that need to be addressed. First of all, the models will have to be anatomically correct in order to give the best visualization of the maxillary region of the skull. I already have a skull model that was taken from a patient’s MRI scan, however this will need to be cleaned up and refined as there are a few missing chunks of bone in the model – something that could be better done in zBrush. Anatomical features such as vessels, soft tissue, and nerves will have to be modeled by hand and reviewed by a content advisor. My main collaborator on this project will be a surgeon from the Craniofacial center. He will assist in making sure the content and movement of the surgical instruments, and procedure, are correct.

Below is a mockup of a possible color concept for the finished piece and some sketches from the storyboard:











As for the patient’s face I was thinking of a realistic model with simple texturing applied to it, similar to a glass person so that the underlying anatomy is emphasized.

Additional to the human model, surgical tools will be constructed and given a realistic texture. The movements and handling of the tools will be animated as an additional reference for viewers.

This animation requires a lot of post-production in addition to a spoken narration and possibly background music. I’ve already written out a script, which was taken mostly from papers I’ve found on the procedure. In post-production a lot of fading and overlaying to give it the effect I would like to work towards. This will be done in After Effects and Premier Pro.