IP Requirement: Emory IP
Experience Requirement:
– Mechanical Design
– Rapid Prototyping
Problem Description
Stabilization at the face is needed for image guidance for surgery of the head, for focusing radiation therapy, and potentially for other needs. Present techniques include rigid stabilization with screws through the skin and soft tissues into bone, the mask of Bova and Friedman, and the less accurate “adhesive pads onto the skin”.
Envisioned is a bridging apparatus connecting plaster or thermoplastic islands onto facial bony sites, with extensions around the ears (the so-called arms or temple pieces of eyeglass frames). The apparatus, in addition to having fiducial markers for surgery and radiation therapy, could reach out to stabilize a tiny lightweight item (for example, a camera to record tics involving eyelids, an infrared camera to image through the eyelids to record nystagmus and pupil size, an ultrasound probe for studies of the cartilaginous Eustachian tube, and to hold a nasogastric tube to decrease patient discomfort).
Each patient-customized re-useable “mask” would be made on and used on awake non-sedated patients. The thermoplastic islands would fit onto facial bony sites that are palpable and have comparatively thin non-motile overlying soft tissue (bridge of the nose; zygomatic arch just anterior to the tragus; the junction of the zygomatic arch anteriorly with the malar eminence, specifically the palpable concavity just inferior to the arch there, and just posterior to the malar eminence; and high on the forehead’s midline at the hairline).
The stabilizing apparatus will not touch any mandibular region. Uncompromised are facial motions, mouth-opening, and Frenzel and other maneuvers to open the Eustachian tube.
The proposed device differs from the Florida thermoplastic mask device of Bova and Friedman) in that it touches only islands of skin at bony structures, and does not involve attachment to any tooth.
Reference:
Bova FJ, Friedman WA. Mask system and method for stereotactic radiotherapy and image guided procedures. University of Florida. U.S. patent 7.024.237 B1, granted April 4, 2006.
