Patent ID: 11872398
Assignee: VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY
Field: Medical technology (Instruments)
Classification: CPC A  G | IPC A  G

Claim 0:
1. A method for designing a patient-customized electrode array (EA) or selecting an existing EA that fits the patient best, comprising:
acquiring information of the patient-specific cochlear size and/or shape of the cochlea; and
designing a patient-customized electrode array (EA) or selecting an existing EA that fits the patient best based on the acquired information of the patient-specific cochlear size and/or shape of the cochlea,
wherein the acquiring step comprises:
segmenting shapes of structures of interest (SOIs) of a cochlea of the patient in a pre-operative computed tomography (CT) image of the cochlea using a shape model, wherein the EA is to be placed in the cochlea;
defining a three dimensional (3D) curve of interest within the shape model of the SOIs as a sequence of points, {P1}, wherein i=1, 2, 3, . . . N, N is an integer greater than zero;
automatically transforming the defined 3D curve to the pre-operative CT image so as to obtain a structure curve in the cochlea; and
determining a length and curvatures of the structure curve at the sequence of points {Pi}.