Cutting Guides for Primary Operations

for Locating Resection Boundaries

We can provide autoclavable, nylon cutting guides to assist in the correct location of cranioplasty plates at primary surgery.

Where a tumour has distorted the bone surface, it will not be possible to accurately place the implant before resecting bone.

A guide has the shape of the border of the plate, which is intended to overlap the existing bone. This can be accurately located before removing any bone to define the maximum extent of resectioning. Cutting along the inside border of the guide will allow the tumour to be completely removed in one large piece.

for Remodelling Bone

These cutting guides allow the operating surgeon to drill to pre-determined depths within the abnormal bone. Their multiple drill holes then act as “depth gauges” for bony re-contouring using conventional methods. They were developed with Chelsea & Westminster Hospitals craniomaxillofacial team.

The figure below shows a clinical example for recontouring abnormally large temporal bone. The guide is secured and the prefedined depths are reproduced by drilling the guide holes with a drill fitted with collars to control the depth (left). The holes are then cleaned (middle) and the desired bony contouring is completed to the depth of the drilled holes using a combination of saws and rotary instruments (right).