The surface of the skull is smoothly interpolated across the defect. The thin-plate spline basis is chosen in this application. Flat titanium plate is pressed into the mold in a hydraulic press. The finished annodised plate fits the mold. The perimeter holes in the plate are for the mounting screws and the central holes allow fluid to circulate.
Perforations give the plate a limited amount of adjustment in theatre.
The plate is fixed in place with titanium screws. Radial basis functions impose few restrictions on the geometry of the interpolation centers and are suited to problems where the interpolation centers do not form a regular grid. 16, No 1, pp 96-107, February 1997. R. K. Beatson and G. Newsam. Computers and Mathematics with Applications, Vol.24, No.12, pp7-19, 1992.