Patent ID: 7424139

Claim:
A method for performing a virtual surgical procedure, comprising: scanning a preoperative candidate's body to produce a scanned image of the preoperative candidate's body; calculating, using a Measurement Extraction Profile, at least some measurements of the preoperative candidate's scanned image; creating a preoperative candidate profile from at least some of the calculated measurements; locating, within a postoperative catalog database, previously scanned and measured postoperative breast augmentation patient profiles wherein at least some of the measurements within the previously scanned and measured postoperative breast augmentation patient profiles are within a predetermined range of corresponding measurements of the preoperative candidate profile; retrieving at least a scanned image for at least some of the located postoperative breast augmentation patient profiles; allowing at least one of the retrieved scanned images to be viewed by the preoperative candidate; allowing at least one of the retrieved postoperative breast augmentation patients' scanned images to be selected; converting the scanned image of the preoperative candidate to a VRML image format; converting the scanned image of the at least one selected retrieved postoperative breast augmentation patient's image to a VRML image format; extracting an appropriate breast section from the torso of the preoperative candidate's VRML image to create a breast section void in the torso of the preoperative candidate's VRML image; extracting an appropriate breast section from the torso of the selected postoperative breast augmentation patient's VRML image; creating a forecasted VRML image of the preoperative candidate by allowing the extracted breast section from the torso of the selected postoperative breast augmentation patient's VRML image to be aligned within the breast section void of the preoperative candidate's VRML image; repeating the steps of extracting an appropriate breast section from the torso of the at least one selected postoperative breast augmentation patient's VRML image and creating a forecasted VRML image of the preoperative candidate until a forecasted VRML image of the preoperative candidate has been created for each of the selected postoperative breast augmentation patient's VRML images; presenting at least one forecasted VRML image of the preoperative candidate to the preoperative candidate; allowing the preoperative candidate to review the at least one forecasted VRML image; allowing a forecasted VRML image to be selected; converting the selected forecasted VRML image to a scanned image format to create a forecasted scan image; and calculating, using the Measurement Extraction Profile, at least some measurements of the preoperative candidate's forecasted scan image.