3D-Printed Canine Tibia Model from Clinical Computed Tomography Data

Abstract

AbstractThe goal of this study is to show the process for obtaining a 3D model of a canine tibia using free software from clinical quality computed tomography (CT) images. In this case, the obtained model was used for generating a computer simulation with the Finite Element Method (FEM) and for generating a 3D printed canine tibia. First, a real canine tibia was scanned in order to generate Dicom (Digital Imaging and Communication on Medicine) CT images. Using the open source 3D Slicer, the Dicom CT images, the cortical and trabecular bones were segmented to construct to build a first 3D tibia model. The defects of this first 3D model were examined, and its surfaces were smoothed using open source MeshMixer software. Subsequently, the smoothed 3D tibia model was exported to STL file (Standard Triangle Language), and then imported to Mentat-Marc FEM software in which uniform tetrahedral elements meshes for the trabecular and cortical bones were generated. These 3D meshes were used to develop a Finite Element Analysis for studying the mechanical stiffness of the tibia. Also, the stl file obtained was imported to the Wanhao cura v.18.04 software, and the G-code file were created. Finally, a 3D canine tibia model was printed in a Wanhao Duplicator 6 3D printer with ivory-colored PLA. This 3D printed model was used for later for educational training.KeywordsTibiaComputerized axial tomographyCanineCorticalTrabecularFEM3D printed model