Patent ID: 7058439

Claim:
A method of forming a model of a breast prosthesis for a patient who has had one breast at least partially removed, comprising: providing a scanning system comprising one or more imaging devices and one or more alignment markers, wherein at least one of the alignment markers comprises a tangible object, wherein the tangible object is noticeable in a scanned image and may be used to manipulate a scanned image as a reference point; arranging at least one of the alignment markers in the middle of the body of the patient and within the field of view of at least one of the imaging devices; determining a first set of data elements using the scanning system is based on a shape of the patient's intact breast; determining a first computer model of the intact breast based on the first set of data elements; using at least one of the alignment markers in the middle of the body of the patient as a fixed reference point relative to the patient to determine alignment of the first computer model of the intact breast; applying a reflection transformation to the first computer model of the intact breast to form a second computer model, the second computer model comprising a second set of data points that represents a mirror image of the first computer model; determining a third set of data elements using the scanning system based on a surgical site at which the breast was at least partially removed; determining a third computer model based on the third set of data elements; and combining the third computer model and the second computer model to form a breast prosthesis model, wherein the second computer model defines an anterior portion of the breast prosthesis model that mirrors the intact breast and the third computer model defines a posterior portion of the breast prosthesis model that is custom fit to the surgical site.