Statistical Shape Model Guided Virtual Reduction of Displaced Distal Radius Fractures

Jana Osstyn, Femke Danckaers, A. Verstreken, Annemieke Van Haver, Matthias Vanhees, Jan Sijbers

Abstract: Virtual reduction is a valuable technique for preoperative planning of displaced distal radius fractures, which is one of the most common fractures treated in emergency departments. State-of-the-art methods for virtual repositioning of fractured radius fragments rely on a (mirrored) contralateral scan. Such a scan however, admits additional X-ray dose to the patient. Moreover, the mirrored contralateral bone may not always serve as a representative shape template. In this paper, we propose the use of a statistical shape model (SSM) to replace the mirrored contralateral bone as a template. The reduction process is fully automated and guided by the template to restore the original shape of the fractured radius. Our virtual reduction approach is compared to a reduction method that relies on a mirrored contralateral bone and to manual (i.e., virtually planned) reduction by a clinical expert. Results on 29 cases show that our SSM-based approach outperforms reductions compared to those using the contralateral radius, and even improves upon manual reduction by the clinical expert.