Image-guided planning system for skull correction in children with craniosynostos

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Craniosynostosis is the premature fusion of cranial sutures and occurs in approximately one in 2000 live births. It results in cranial malformation that can lead to elevated intra-cranial pressure, brain growth impairment, and developmental deficiency. The most common treatment option for craniosynostosis is surgery. Currently, surgical treatment planning of craniosynostosis is mostly qualitative, subjective and irreproducible guided mainly by the surgeon's experience. While virtual planning has been successfully introduced in niche areas of craniofacial surgery, such as corrective jaw surgery applications, clinical tools that provide accurate and reproducible evaluation of cranial morphology to guide cranial vault remodeling do not yet exist. To cover this gap in current clinical practice, we will develop personalized preoperative planning for infants with craniosynostosis that allows for decreased operative time and blood loss, thereby reducing perioperative morbidi