Nearly 10,000 patients are diagnosed with T4 oral cancer of the lower jaw each year in the U.S. To treat this aggressive form of cancer, the fibula bone is removed from the patient’s leg and reconstructed to replace the affected mandible. The current technique used to reconstruct the mandible from the fibula utilizes tongue depressors to measure and notate where the fibula ought to be cut -- a tedious and time-consuming process for a procedure that can take up to 12 hours to complete and can cost upwards of $100,000. FlushCut is a tool that can be used to aid in the precise cutting of the fibula with three degrees of angular and linear freedom.
Project tags
Student team
Benjamin Dobin
Balakumaran Gopalarethinam
Tina Li
Hrishikesh Pathak
Conner Stevens
Mentoring team
Randall Bly, MD (Pediatric Otolaryngology)
Jeffrey Houlton, MD (Otolaryngology)
Jonathan Liu, PhD (Mechanical Engineering)
Year
Continuing project
Yes