Patent ID: 6932842

Claim:
Method for manufacturing a patient-specific implant, comprising: obtaining medical two-dimensional image data of a defect area in a patient requiring an implant and an environment thereof for a patient by a method selected from the group consisting of computer tomography (CT) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) tomography; using a mathematical image processing algorithm to form a surface using the two-dimensional image data; performing a segmentation to detect bones and hard tissue ranges; generating a virtual three-dimensional model from the image data of at least the defect area in the patient requiring an implant and the environment thereof; comparing the virtual three-dimensional model to real medical reference data; selecting from the real medical reference data a set of said reference data best suited for the patient and forming a three-dimensional reference model object therefrom, the step of selecting the set of said reference data best suited for the patient and forming a reference model object therefrom comprising: first selecting a plurality of sets of the reference data and forming a corresponding plurality of three-dimensional reference model objects therefrom most resembling the patient considering mathematical, functional, medical and aesthetic parameters; and then selecting one of said plurality of three-dimensional reference model objects best suited for the patient; generating a virtual implant model from said selected one of said plurality of three-dimensional reference model objects by superimposing said selected one of said plurality of three-dimensional reference model objects with the virtual three-dimensional model; and manufacturing the implant by computer numeric control based on data from the virtual implant model.