IJAPIE-2016-04-210, Vol 1(2), 47-52 International journal of advanced production and industrial engineering (A Blind Peer Reviewed Journal) | IJAPIE | ISSN: 2455–8419 | www.ijapie.org | Vol. 1 | Issue. 2 | 2016 | 47 | Temporal Bone Fabrication using FDM Technique: Issues and Opportunities Piyush D. Ukey 1 , Ankit Nayak 2 , R. V. Uddanwadiker 3 , Prashant K. Jain 2 1, 2, 4 (Mechanical Engineering Department, PDPM IIITDM Jabalpur, MP, India) Email: d.piyush@iiitdmj.ac.in, ankitnayak@iiitdmj.ac.in, pkain@iiitdmj.ac.in 3 (Mechanical Engineering Department, VNIT Nagpur, MH, India) Email: rvuddanwadikar@mec.vnit.ac.in Abstract: Study and dissection of cadaver bones is one of the best way to enhance the skills of surgeons, thus improving the rate of succession in surgery. Dissecting cadaver temporal bone is best teaching technique in otolaryngology. Due to several constraint in the easy availability of cadaver temporal bone like ethical, legal, religious, etc. it is not possible to ensure frequent availability of cadaver temporal bone for study and dissecting purpose. However, nowadays due to development of innovative processes like Additive Manufacturing (AM), it is possible to fabricate a part with higher accuracy irrespective of its geometrical complexity. AM process is being frequently used in different applications like medical, aerospace, tooling etc. However, the data preparation phase is a critical stage in the fabrication of medical parts through AM processes, because it affect the final geometrical features. In this study, a detailed data preparation phase is discussed and implemented for the fabrication of temporal bone with FDM based AM process. It consists of three main categories i.e. image acquisition, image post processing, 3D printing. FDM fabricated bone part is further dissected to demonstrate the capability of proposed method by checking features in the fabricated model. Features such as foraminae, canals, suture lines, ossicles are ensured in an artificial model. A patient specific anatomical model can be printed with proposed method, can be used as pre-surgical planning, mock surgery, educational or demonstration purpose. Fabricated model can be used to demonstrate surgical operation viz. simple mastoidectomy, modified mastoidectomy, and radical mastoidectomy. Keywords: Anatomical Model, Rapid Prototyping, Fused Deposition Modelling, Mock Surgery, Pre-Surgical Planning, Temporal Bone. 1. INTRODUCTION The temporal bone is one of the most complex part of the body. Highly skilled otolaryngologist are required for carrying ear surgery. Otolaryngologist skills can be best developed by performing mock surgery on temporal bone. Currently, mock surgery of temporal bone is performed on cadaver temporal bones, availability of cadaver temporal bones are very limited, they also carry infectious agents such as mycobacterium tuberculosis, hepatitis B and C viruses and prions associated with encephalopathies such as Creutzfeldt- Jakob disease, one can avail the temporal bone only if the body is donated to the hospital or body is unclaimed in the case of an accident. The cost of cadaver temporal bone also vary in many countries, and few of them have prohibited the use of cadaver temporal bone due to the moral and ethical ground or for religious reasons [1]. However, medical research institute have rights whether to accept the body or not. It may be possible that the donor is suffering from some dangerous disease that can be transmitted to the surgeon while practicing on temporal bone. Temporal bone is shown in Fig. 1. To avoid this situation, artificial temporal bone can be fabricated. Fabricating temporal bone is difficult because of the complex internal anatomical structure. Hence, it is fabricated using the Additive Manufacturing technique. Fig. 1. Temporal Bone.