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The Development of Computer‐aided Patient‐Specific Template Design

Software for 3D printing in Cranio‐Maxillofacial Surgery

Article  in  International Journal of Medical Robotics and Computer Assisted Surgery · February 2021
DOI: 10.1002/rcs.2243

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DOI: 10.1002/rcs.2243

ORIGINAL ARTICLE
- -Revised: 5 February 2021 Accepted: 8 February 2021

The development of computer‐aided patient‐specific

template design software for 3D printing in
cranio‐maxillofacial surgery

Afaque R. Memon1 | Dongyuan Li1 | Junlei Hu1 | Enpeng Wang1 |

Dingzhong Zhang1 | Xiaojun Chen1,2,3

1
School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai
Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China Abstract
2
Institute of Medical Robotics, Shanghai Jiao Background: The patient‐specific templates for osteotomy often have complex
Tong University, Shanghai, China
surface features. Using current commercial software to design such templates is
3
Engineering Research Center of Digital
Medicine and Clinical Translation, Ministry of
quite complicated, tedious and unrepeatable.
Education, Shanghai, China Aims: In this study, a novel surgical planning system for oral and maxillofacial
surgery named EasyTemplate is developed, aiming to help doctors shorten the
Correspondence
Xiaojun Chen, Room 805, School of modelling time and assure the reliability in template design.
Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong Materials & Methods: In the simplified design process of an osteotomy guide, the
University, Dongchuan Road 800, Minhang
District, 200240 Shanghai, China. main template can be formed efficiently using a surface offsetting algorithm, which
Email: xiaojunchen@163.com is based on isosurface extraction and oriented bounding box. Thereafter, the cutting

Funding information
grooves can be generated automatically.
National Key R&D Program of China: Results: A complicated surgical guide could be built accurately in about 10 min.
2017YFB1104100; National Natural Science
Clinical orthognathic cases were conducted successfully using osteotomy and
Foundation of China, Grant/Award Numbers:
81971709; M‐0019; 82011530141; repositioning templates designed by EasyTemplate.
Foundation of Science and Technology
Discussion: Compared with commercially available softwares, higher efficiency and
Commission of Shanghai Municipality, Grant/
Award Numbers: 19510712200; simpler design process were achieved, moreover, the time cost is one‐third or even
20490740700; Shanghai Jiao Tong University
less.
Foundation on Medical and Technological
Joint Science Research, Grant/Award Conclusion: EasyTemplate can be a useful alternative to traditional softwares. This
Numbers: ZH2018ZDA15; YG2019ZDA06;
software allows the auto-generation algorithm which helps avoid a tedious modeling
ZH2018QNA23; 2020 Key Research project
of Xiamen Municipal Government: process while providing basic shapes for designers.
3502Z20201030

KEYWORDS
computer‐aided surgery, cranio‐maxillofacial surgery, surgical template

1 | INTRODUCTION
Basically, a surgical template is a guide which is useful for implant
placement, bone repositioning, osteotomy, tumuor resetting and
finding the accurate position of the implant prosthesis.1 The previous
manufacturing of the surgical template relied upon the manual
structure and assembling techniques for the most part. However,
these methods were unrepeatable, nonstandard and time‐consuming.
With the popularity of computer‐aided design (CAD) and computer‐
aided manufacturing (CAM), additive manufacturing of specific tem-
plates guiding the osteotomy and repositioning has become a useful
alternative to the intermediate splint technique.2 Meanwhile, the

Afaque R. Memon and Dongyuan Li contributed equally to this study.

Int J Med Robot. 2021;e2243. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/rcs © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 1 of 10
https://doi.org/10.1002/rcs.2243
2 of 10
- MEMON
medical field is growing rapidly in terms of computer‐aided surgical
procedures to obtain more accurate data in three dimensions (3D)
and to manufacture it accordingly, with the help of 3D design
software.3
For patients with cranial‐maxillofacial injuries or large mandib-
ular defects, accurate reconstruction of the mandible can be quite
challenging in consideration of the functional and aesthetic conse-
quences.4 An acceptable recreation needs to fulfil various criteria
such as: to establish an aesthetic facial architecture, to preserve both
masticationary function and respiration, and to allow an intelligible
speech. Even most experienced surgeons can be challenged to
meet all these criteria as well as by defects requiring multiple
osteotomies or with soft tissue defects.5 Recent developments in
CAD/CAM have allowed doctors to attempt more accurate opera-
tions and reconstructions with improved intraoperative efficiency.6,7
Computer‐aided surgical template design and manufacture has
already been used to guide doctors in making an efficient osteotomy
and moving bony segments as planned in software.8 Furthermore,
several researchers have already revealed the use of CAD/CAM
templates for mandibular distractor osteogenesis.9‐12
Currently, there are many commercial software packages avail-
able for template design such as Imageware, UniGraphics (UG), Pro/
Engineer, Geomagics Studio, Para form, STTIM100, ICEM Surf and
many more. However, these softwares all share the common disad-
vantages in surgical template design, such as complex modelling
process, high learning cost and low repeatability. Chen et al. revealed
that the traditional CAD software packages available in the market
were not dedicated to surgical template design because the usage
may be too complicated and difficult for a medical doctor to learn.13‐15
Using unspecialised software to design a customised osteotomy
template for corrective osteotomy may be extraordinary time‐
consuming. Oka et al.16 for instance, have invested many days using
Magics RP to design such templates. In addition, doctors are unable to
use software that requires engineering background to build a model.
Therefore, it is necessary to develop specialised software and to study
the key algorithms for surgical template design in computer‐aided
cranial‐maxillofacial surgery.
To solve this problem, a design software called EasyTemplate for
3D‐printed templates in cranio‐maxillofacial surgery is developed in
this study. The development of software function is based on some
classical open source libraries for computer graphics and geometry
algorithms, including Visualization Toolkit (VTK, http://www.vtk.org/)
and Computational Geometry Algorithms Library (https://www.cgal.
org/). The user interface (UI) is built up by Qt (a cross‐platform tool
for UI development, http://qt‐project.org/). The developed software
EasyTemplate runs smoothly on a PC with Intel Core i7 with a 1G
discrete GPU, 2.50 GHz CPU, 8 GB memory and a 64‐bit Windows
10 operating system.
This specialised software is simple and efficient enough to design
useful surgical templates. It can also effectively facilitate the design
of patient‐specific maxillofacial templates for doctors. The key algo-
rithms on template design include multiplanar cutting, surface off-
setting, automatic groove generation and repositioning guide
ET AL.
generation, which have been developed and optimised. In comparison
with the current commercial software, EasyTemplate has a more
simplified and time‐saving modelling process. Meanwhile, for the
person who does not have much relevant experience, the usage of
EasyTemplate is more foolproof and easier to learn.
2 | METHODS
Many relative algorithms are utilised in EasyTemplate to realise
the whole process of template modellings such as a surface
offset algorithm based on directed bounding box, automatic
osteotomy groove generation algorithm based on implicit function
cutting and the automatic generating algorithm of repositioning
template based on the spatial position transformation solution. On
the basis of the key algorithms mentioned above, surgical tem-
plates can be built easily even by a beginner following the steps
given below.
Initially, the reconstruction of a 3D model is adopted through 3D
reconstruction software using the patient's computed tomography
(CT) scan data. Then, based on the original model, the planned model
could be designed using preoperative planning software. Finally,
specific templates, guiding the osteotomy and repositioning, will be
designed by EasyTemplate with several steps.
To build an osteotomy guide template, firstly, the basic surface
and fixing area on the origin model should be selected. After using a
surface offsetting function of the template design software to
extract the feature of the original bone surface, a designer could
conveniently obtain the basic joint plate and upper occlusal plate,
which fit the bone surface well. Regarding the design of osteotomy
groove and fixed hole on the template, the automatic groove gen-
eration and hole punching functions are effective methods. Finally,
Boolean operations are needed to combine the separated parts
together.
Regarding the repositioning connection template, this software
uses the inverse solution algorithm of 3D space model movement to
replace the complex position movement in the traditional design
process. Before the design starts, a planned model should be built as
a reference, and following the same modelling steps above, designers
need to select a basic surface and obtain planned planes. Thereafter,
according to the planned model, a translation matrix (M) is computed
out to connect the upper part and lower part. Finally, to obtain a
reposition connection template with fixed punching holes, surface
offsetting and hole punching should still be implemented. The full
workflow and steps are described in Figure 1 and the key algorithms
involved are described below.
2.1 | Preoperative planning
In this study, the design of the surgical template is mainly for the
correction and repair of mandibular distortion. The operation needs
to plan the cutting path and the correct position of the bone block
MEMON ET AL.
- 3 of 10

FIGURE 1 The main design workflow of osteotomy (left) and repositioning template (right)

according to the patient's CT tomographic image. Through preoper-

ative planning, doctors can obtain a personalised surgical plan by
analysing and processing the image data of the lesions before sur-
gery. In the orthognathic operation planning, the maxilla should be
extracted for reduction simulation. Compared with the complex
cutting method in traditional CAD software, this section introduces a
multiplanar cutting algorithm, which is more effective and convenient
for preoperative planning of the clinical case.
By picking up a series of points on the model through clicking,
arbitrary cutting tracks can be formed based on a curve cutting al-
gorithm. According to the cutting curve, the closed area that fits the
curve is calculated then the cutting process can be converted into
multiplanar cutting, and a more accurate cutting result will be
obtained.
Figure 2A shows a single plane cutting model. Figure 2B
shows a triangular section. Then, by intersecting two adjacent cut
sections of each cut section (as shown in Figure 2C), all the
triangularised sections are intercepted, so that only the model
within the cutting range is retained. Figure 2D shows the final cut
result.
The entire workflow of preoperative planning is as follows. First,
the normal vectors of all triangular faces are computed and stored in FIGURE 2 The virtual clipping of the maxillary bone

CellsList. Then, the planned plane is obtained by finding equal normal

vectors in the list. In the end, osteotomy guide templates are
designed according to the planned plane. After the successful design
of a planned plane model, an algorithm is used to determine the
cutting plane. The pseudocode to determine the cutting plane is given
below.
Algorithm 1: Determine cutting plane.
Require: CellsList of mesh, Threshold, e1, PCellsList of plane, e2
Ensure: n, P2, P3
function Obtian Plane (CellsList, Threshold)
4 of 10
- MEMON ET AL.

for each Cell in CellsList do For the determination of the oriented bounding box in the 3D
ni ← GetNormal (e1, e2) space, a 3D convex hull, assume it has n triangles, set as ΔPk Qk Rk and
NormalList ← ni Pk ; Qk ; Rk represent the three vertices of the triangle. The area of the
end for whole convex hull can be expressed as:
for each ni in Normallist do
n−1
X
for each ni+1 in Normallist do SM ¼ Sk : ð1Þ
if ni = = ni+1 then. k¼0

n ← ni
The weighted average value of the centroid coordinates of the
PCellsList ← n
triangle is:
end if
end for n−1
1 X
MM ¼ Sk mk : ð2Þ
end for SM k¼0
return PCelllist
end function. According to Equations (1) and (2), the 3 � 3 covariance matrix C
of a polyhedral convex hull can be constructed by the following
equation:
"
n−1 k �
2.2 | Surface offsetting � � � � 1 X S
Ci;j ¼ E xi xj − E½xi �E xj ¼ M
9mki mkj þ pki pkj þ qki qkj
S k¼0 12
! #
�
Surface offsetting helps to generate the basic plate of the osteotomy þ rki rkj − mM M
i mj : ð3Þ
template for further design. Firstly, the curve cutting method is
applied to extract the fitted surface of the origin model. Then the
surface offsetting function can be used to thicken the extracted In Equation (3), the superscript k represents the first k triangles,
surface. A common method of surface offsetting is to move the the superscript M on behalf of the entire polyhedral convex hull, the
surface by a certain distance in the direction of the lateral surface of subscripts i and j refer to the corresponding component. The formula
the bone. The direction of movement can be uniquely determined by represents the 3D point set the information of a polyhedron convex
the weighted average of the normal vectors of triangular faces hulled in space. By diagonalising the matrix, the corresponding ei-
around the points. Regarding complex surfaces, the calculation time genvectors and corresponding eigenvalues of the matrix can be ob-
would be inevitably long. At the same time, due to the large curvature tained. In the eigenvalues, the vector corresponding to the maximum
change of the cranial‐maxillofacial surface, the model generated by value is the principal direction of the directional bounding box. By
the algorithm is often inaccurate in the direction of migration, which projecting all points on the polyhedral convex hull into the unit
fails to meet the needs of users. vector of the directional bounding box, the maximum length lkmax and
In this study, a surface offsetting algorithm based on the iso- minimum length lkmin could be obtained. Then, the half‐length of the
surface extraction algorithm is proposed to solve this problem. The bounding could be expressed as Equation (4),
algorithm combines the oriented bounding box tree (OBBTree) and
lkmin þ lkmax
the isosurface extraction algorithm, effectively reducing the running lkhalf ¼ ; ð4Þ
2
time of the algorithm, and the accuracy of the model is also guar-
anteed to a certain extent. A typical oriented bounding box is shown And the centre of the bounding box is shown in Equation (5), where
in Figure 3. vk indicates the unit vector.

F I G U R E 3 Oriented bounding box of

random points. By calculating the eigenvalues
and eigenvectors of the point set covariance
matrix, the geometric center and the principal
axis of the oriented bounding box is obtained
MEMON ET AL.
- 5 of 10

FIGURE 5 Osteotomy guide

FIGURE 4 The offsetting surface design procedure and results

2
X lkmin þ lkmax k
C¼ v : ð5Þ
k¼0
2

The base surface of the basic plate is extracted from the original
model by the surface extraction algorithm according to actual needs
based on marching cubes (MC) algorithm. After obtaining the base
surface, surface offsetting should follow these steps: (1) Establish the
grid of bounding box of basic surface, distributed sampling points into
space; (2) to reduce the time of computing the shortest distance, the
vtkOBBTree algorithm is used to divide the basic surface into multi-
ple‐OBB; (3) compute every node's signed shortest distance to basic
surface mesh; (4) obtain the offsetting surface with the MC algorithm.
Figure 4 shows the process of obtaining the base plate model F I G U R E 6 Illustration of automatic osteotomy groove
from the surface to the thickening. The red sample points represent generation procedure
the sample points with a positive distance symbol, while the blue
sample points represent the sample points with a negative distance
symbol. The output yellow model is the thickened joint plate obtained Therefore, this study proposes a method for automatic genera-
by the algorithm. After n cycles, the algorithm can calculate the tion of a complete osteotomy slot. (1) Obtain the central plane po-
distance field distribution of the sampling point, which can effectively sition information in the Y direction of the groove according to the
avoid the distance field calculation of the point outside the directed planning model, and generate a rectangular parallelepiped plate from
bounding box, thus reducing the amount of calculation and speeding the plane information. The thickness of the plate is the same as the
up the running speed of the algorithm. required groove width. (2) According to the range position informa-
tion of the grooves input by the user in the X direction, accurate
position information of the long plate for grooving on both sides is
2.3 | Generation of osteotomy guide obtained. Then, the long plate is modified by plane cutting. The
normal vector nt of the cutting plane is calculated by the normal
In orthognathic surgery, osteotomy grooves are used to fix the di- vector nl of the long plate cross the normal vector nc of the centre
rection of movement of the scalpel and ensure that the cutting point of a basic plane as Equation (6), and the coordinates of the
location conforms to preoperative planning results during osteotomy. points P (x, y, z) on the plane can be obtained by moving centre point
To prevent vibration that makes the cutting path deviate from the C (x, y, z) following Equation (5), where l is the length of the long plate.
planned direction during the operation of the scalpel, it is necessary
to design a 1‐mm thick step around the osteotomy groove. According nt ¼ n l � n c ; ð6Þ

to the individual needs of patients, the design of osteotomy guides
varies from person to person, meanwhile, the design process can be
awfully complicated and cumbersome in present commercial 3D
design software for inexpert designers. An osteotomy guide used in
common orthognathic surgery is shown in Figure 5.
P ¼ C − 0:4ln t : ð7Þ
(3) After the main model of the osteotomy guide and the long
plate for grooving, the surface model of the thickened plate around
the groove is calculated by using the distance field stereo cutting
6 of 10
- MEMON
algorithm. (4) The surface model is stretched to a certain thickness
to generate a thick plate. After the Boolean algorithm is applied to
merge the thick plate and the main body model, the long plate is
used to cut the summed model to finally obtain the required
model.
The design procedure is shown in Figure 6. After the osteotomy
pits are generated automatically, planar and curved cutting methods
are required to modify the base guide template, meanwhile, while
the position of the fixing hole is determined, punch the fixing hole.
Then, the methods of drawing and stretching are used to generate
the upper occlusal plate, take the centre surface of the skull as the
base surface, and draw a sketch and extrude to generate an in-
termediate connecting template. Finally, the Boolean summation
operation is applied to complete the design of the entire osteotomy
guide.
2.4 | Repositioning connection template
The repositioning connection template is used to connect the cor-
rected mandible after the osteotomy. An appropriate connection
guide needs to fit the surface of the main bone and the corrected
bone well. In osteotomy operation, the connection guide and
osteotomy guide are often used together, so the design process of
connecting guide template is related to the osteotomy guide, and
FIGURE 7 Connection guide
FIGURE 8 Illustration of automatic repositioning guide generation procedure
ET AL.
corresponding design needs to be made according to the planning
plane information and the actual planning position during the design
process. However, in the process of using traditional 3D model
software to design the connecting guide template, the connection
between guide templates is not taken into account, which results in
the need to manually adjust the position for calibration. A connecting
guide used in common orthognathic surgery is shown in Figure 7.
In this study, the design of the connecting guide and osteotomy
guide are combined, and the reverse solution algorithm of 3D space
model movement is used to replace the complex position movement
in the traditional design process. At the same time, the design steps
of the connecting guide are simplified by using the rational transfer of
the plane equation and the position coordinate information of the
retaining hole, to improve the design efficiency of the connecting
guide.
The spatial motion matrix of the rigid body can be obtained by
combining the position movement matrix with the rotation matrix in
x, y, z directions. Because the scaling of the spatial model is not
involved in the process of bone block correction, and the defor-
mation of the bone block itself does not need to be considered, the
problem of solving the spatial position transformation of the bone
block can be transformed into a kinematic solution problem. The
spatial motion of the model is essentially the coordinate system
movement before and after the model, so the motion matrix from
coordinate system A to coordinate system B can be raised to solve
this problem.
Based on solving the spatial position transformation of the
model, this study simplifies the tedious operation process of tradi-
tional design methods. The algorithm also realised the function of
automatically generating the base surface of the repositioning guide
template and the fixed hole. To decrease the injury of the patient
during surgery, the method uses the position information of the up-
per fixed hole directly into the design of the repositioning connection
template. This makes it possible to automatically generate fixed
holes. The basic idea of the auto‐generated repositioning connecting
template is shown in Figure 8.
Figure 8 shows the basic surface cutting, spatial transformation
matrix solution, surface splice, surface offsetting and the generation
MEMON ET AL.
of fixed holes. The blue model is the mandible model of the patient,
the dark green and blue model is the result after orthognathic sur-
gery planning, and the green model is the designed connection
template.
3 | RESULTS
A general framework of the surgical guide template design was
introduced and several algorithms were proposed including multi-
planar cutting, surface offsetting, osteotomy pits and repositioning
guide templates which are generated automatically. A design soft-
ware named EasyTemplate was developed using Microsoft Visual
FIGURE 9 Main interface of the EasyTemplate software
FIGURE 10 A and B show the osteotomy guides, and C and D show the repositioning guides
- 7 of 10
Studio 2017 (Microsoft) in the Biomedical Manufacturing and Life
Quality Engineering Laboratory of Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
Several clinical cases of customised guide template design were
conducted using EasyTemplate.
Figure 9 is the main interface of our customised surgical tem-
plate design software ‘EasyTemplate’. While the designed guide
template model is used in clinical applications, a comparison was
made between traditional software (including Mimics Geomagics
Studio, UG together) and EasyTemplate. For example, the user
cannot design complicated shapes using Geomagic studio as it does
not have some special functions. Additionally, you cannot undo your
mistakes more than one step if you want to revert your changes.
Meanwhile, Solidworks also has limited features in terms of surgical
8 of 10
- MEMON
template design. The process is complicated, requires multiple
Boolean operations, and takes a long time. Compared with the above
commercial softwares, EasyTemplate comes with more effective and
convenient features as it is specialised for surgical template design.
The design of the two clinical cases is shown in Figure 10. For
comparison, five such models have been designed by both traditional
software and EasyTemplate. Different from EasyTemplate, the design
process of surgical templates using traditional software, such as
Geomagic Studio and 3D‐matic, is complicated. For example, to
obtain a cutting guide, firstly, the surface extraction and offsetting
functions are applied to build the initial template. Then, the appro-
priate reference planes are needed to stretch the convex hulls which
are necessary to generate osteotomy grooves. Finally, the fixed holes
and some other auxiliary structures are obtained using the functions
of surface extraction, offsetting and Boolean operations. The average
time to complete the same steps of the template design process with
different software and algorithm is shown in Table 1.
In terms of a better result, template design with EasyTemplate is
more efficient than traditional software. EasyTemplate is more tar-
geted to the design of guide plates required for orthognathic surgery
during system development. Many ordinary repetitive operations are
reduced. Therefore, EasyTemplate reduces the requirements of
experience for designers and makes it easier to design more accurate
surgical templates in a shorter time. The time cost is reduced by
about two‐thirds.
Up to now, totally five clinical cases have been successfully
conducted with the help of EasyTemplate in the template design
process. For a patient with a misaligned mandible, the offset bone
block needs to be corrected by orthognathic surgery. Intra-
operatively, an osteotomy guide was used to assist in cutting off the
Functions Geomagic studio (min) 3D‐matic (min)
Obtain osteotomy grooves 14.8 ± 3 13.2 ± 3
Obtain repositioning template 15.6 ± 4 12.1 ± 3
Punching 4.4 ± 2 3.4 ± 1
Total time 34.8 ± 9 28.7 ± 7
User interaction Very complicated Complicated
ET AL.
misplaced bone, thereafter, a repositioning guide was applied to
connect the corrected mandibular block and the main bone block.
Figure 11A,B respectively show the application of an osteotomy
guide and repositioning guide.
4 | DISCUSSION
Computer‐based planning for surgical template reconstructions has
been progressively more accepted worldwide because of its
improved accuracy, convenience and the expected superior patient
outcomes. However, CAD/CAM technology is not new, the latest
improvements in resolution, image quality and decreased slice
thickness obtained from CT scans, now allow for increased accuracy
of 3D modelling and more advanced surgical simulations.17‐19
The functions of commercially available software (such as UG,
Pro/E, Solidworks and Geomagics) are comprehensive but not very
specific for maxillofacial template design. For example, the design of
the guide groove of the osteotomy guide requires multiple surface
extraction, stretching and Boolean operations in traditional com-
mercial software, the design takes quite a long time. In the design of
the corrective connection guide template, it is necessary to use
Boolean operations to move the bone pieces and the original model
to fuse the model, and then extract the curved surface, thicken it in
the offset, and so forth. The operation process is relatively cumber-
some and requires high requirement for the designer. The automatic
generation algorithm mentioned in this article can reduce the number
of Boolean operations, which could effectively speed up the design of
the guide template and shorten the design cycle. Compared with
traditional commercial softwares such as Solidworks and 3D‐matic,
T A B L E 1 Comparison between
EasyTemplate (min)
traditional software and EasyTemplate
4.5 ± 1
4.8 ± 2
1±0
10.3 ± 3
Easy
F I G U R E 1 1 Clinical outcome of osteotomy
guide and repositioning guide
MEMON ET AL.
the time spent to design the osteotomy grooves using EasyTemplate
is one‐third that of commercial software.
EasyTemplate can be a very useful alternative to commercially
available softwares with an auto‐generated repositioning guide al-
gorithm, reducing the difficulty to reverse modelling and to provide
basic shapes for designers. It also contains multiple functions so that
ideal templates can be designed through the software. During the
surgery, it can also be combined with AR surgery navigation20 to
achieve full computer‐aided surgical procedures, which ensures dig-
ital and precise surgery.
5 | CONCLUSION
With the growing need for individual templates, EasyTemplate can be
a useful alternative to traditional softwares. This software allows the
auto‐generation algorithm which helps to avoid a tedious modelling
process while providing basic shapes for designers. The new algo-
rithm implemented in the EasyTemplate allows multiple functions so
that ideal templates could be designed. Five orthognathic cases were
conducted successfully based on the osteotomy templates and
repositioning templates designed by EasyTemplate.
Compared with other commercially available software, Easy-
Template has more effective algorithms and a simpler design process.
This software also reduces the requirement for designers to build a
patient‐specific surgical template. The option is available in the
future to combine EasyTemplate software with preoperative plan-
ning software to improve the efficiency of planning and design of
surgical templates.
A CK N O WL ED GM E N T S
This work was supported by grants from the National Key R&D
Program of China (Grant No. 2017YFB1104100), National Natural
Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 81971709, M‐0019;
82011530141), the Foundation of Science and Technology Com-
mission of Shanghai Municipality (Grant Nos. 19510712200,
20490740700), Shanghai Jiao Tong University Foundation on
Medical and Technological Joint Science Research (Grant Nos.
ZH2018ZDA15, YG2019ZDA06, ZH2018QNA23) and 2020 Key
Research project of Xiamen Municipal Government (Grant No.
3502Z20201030).
C ON F LI C T O F IN T ER E S T
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest in this study
D A TA A V AIL AB IL I T Y S T A T E M E N T
Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were
generated or analysed during the current study
O RC ID
Xiaojun Chen https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0298-4491
- 9 of 10
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