Union Hospital Affiliated with Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology to Transfer 'Automatic Bone Cement Volume Calculation System V1.0' for RMB 300,000

Recently, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, released a public notice on cash rewards for the conversion of scientific and technological achievements. The hospital intends to transfer“Automatic Calculation System for Vertebral Body Cement Volume V1.0”Proposed Transfer of Computer Software Copyright to Jiayi High-Tech (Hubei) Co., Ltd., AgreementAmount: RMB 300,000。

The core R&D personnel of this software system areAttending Physician Cao Faqi’s Team, Peking Union Medical College HospitalDr. Cao Faqi holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Medicine from Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and currently serves as an Associate Chief Physician at Union Hospital affiliated with Huazhong University of Science and Technology. He has long been dedicated to the field of orthopedic trauma, boasting extensive experience in clinical diagnosis and treatment as well as significant achievements in scientific research and innovation. He has published academic papers in prestigious domestic and international journals as the first or corresponding author.Over 20 articles, and has served as a core member in multiple national-level research projects, including the National Key R&D Program and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. In 2016, he pursued advanced studies in Germany as an AO Visiting Scholar. In the same year, the research project he participated in, “Key Techniques for the Treatment of Traumatic Fractures and Their Clinical Series Applications,” was awarded the Second Prize of Hubei Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award. Furthermore, he holds4 Utility Model Patents, and co-edited3 Professional MonographsIn terms of academic service, Dr. Cao currently serves as a Committee Member of the Traumatic Orthopedics Group under the Bone and Joint Branch of the Chinese Geriatrics Society, a Committee Member of the Geriatrics Branch of the Chinese Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics, and a Committee Member of the Young Academic Committee of the Chinese Journal of Trauma. He also holds several other important social positions, including Chairman of the Osteoporosis Professional Committee of the Hubei Society for Sports Human Science Research.

The Transferee of the Current AchievementJiayi High-Tech (Hubei) Co., Ltd., is a high-tech enterprise specializing in the research, application, and services of CNC and 3D technologies. Based on CNC technology, the company organically integrates CNC technology, computer software technology, and materials science to independently develop and manufacture a series of high-speed CNC multi-station turret punch presses and CNC feeders; a series of desktop 3D printers; specialized medical 3D printers; a series of stereolithography (SLA) 3D printers; 3D scanners; 3D projectors; and 3D printing materials.

The team-developed automated system for calculating vertebral cement volume intelligently and accurately determines the amount of bone cement required for vertebroplasty based on medical imaging data, providing critical technical support for enhancing surgical safety and standardizing operational procedures.

Osteoporosis and osteoporotic fractures are common conditions that severely impair motor function and quality of life in the elderly population. Among these, osteoporotic spinal fractures, specifically compressive fractures of the thoracic and lumbar vertebrae in older adults, are particularly prevalent.

Currently, the primary clinical treatment for such fractures is kyphoplasty.This procedure aims to restore the original height and stability of the compressed vertebral body by injecting a medical polymer material known as "bone cement" into it. The ideal surgical outcome is achieved through sufficient and uniform filling of bone cement within the vertebral body, thereby effectively supporting the collapsed vertebra.

However,Intraoperative Bone Cement Injection VolumeIt has always been a key challenge in clinical practice. The uniformity of bone cement distribution within the fractured vertebral body is directly related to the analgesic efficacy of the surgery. If the injection volume is insufficient, the bone cement may fail to adequately diffuse to the superior and inferior endplates (the bony interfaces between the vertebral body and the intervertebral discs), resulting in weakened reinforcement of the fractured vertebra and posing a risk of postoperative loss of vertebral height. Conversely, excessive injection volume significantly increases intravertebral pressure, greatly elevating the probability of bone cement leakage into the spinal canal or surrounding blood vessels. Severe leakage can compress the spinal cord or nerve roots, potentially leading to serious complications such as paralysis.

Currently, surgeons primarily rely on their accumulated clinical experience to determine the volume of bone cement used intraoperatively. Although this subjective approach is feasible to some extent, the lack of objective, quantitative standards can lead to errors, thereby compromising the consistency and safety of the procedure. Therefore, accurately and individually determining the optimal infusion volume of bone cement remains a critical challenge that urgently needs to be addressed in current clinical practice.

In response to the aforementioned clinical challenges, traditional methods relying on empirical estimation have revealed their inherent limitations. And“Automatic Calculation System for Vertebral Bone Cement Volume”was born precisely to fundamentally address this challenge in precision medicine. The core advantage of this system lies in itsIt deeply integrates modern medical imaging, 3D reconstruction technology, and intelligent algorithms, pioneering a new pathway for objective, quantitative, and personalized preoperative planning.

The core advantage embodied by the patented technology “Automatic Calculation System for Vertebral Bone Cement Volume” lies in its successful transformation of a critical decision in minimally invasive spinal surgery—determining the volume of bone cement to be injected, which heavily relies on the surgeon’s subjective experience and intuitive judgment—into an objective, quantitative, and reproducible precision calculation process.

Traditional clinical practice relies entirely on the operator’s visual assessment of two-dimensional medical images (such as X-rays or CT slices) to mentally reconstruct three-dimensional relationships, and on personal case experience to estimate injection volume. This approach inevitably introduces inter-operator variability and uncertainty. In contrast, this system provides a comprehensive digital solution, which begins with routine preoperative computed tomography (CT) images of the vertebral body.

The system automatically identifies and extracts the pixel contours of bone tissue in each CT slice using advanced image segmentation algorithms. These continuous 2D contours are then “stacked” and processed through 3D reconstruction technology to generate a high-fidelity digital model that includes the affected vertebral body and its adjacent healthy vertebrae above and below.

This model not only accurately replicates the geometric morphology of the vertebral body’s external appearance but also clearly distinguishes and reproduces the internal trabecular bone (the porous, honeycomb-like microstructure that constitutes the cancellous bone of the vertebra) and the dense cortical bone enveloping the outer layer, thereby fully preserving the patient’s individualized anatomical information in virtual space.

The system’s intelligent advantages are further demonstrated by its innovative “digital template matching and difference extraction” method.It does not merely perform simple morphological measurements on the diseased vertebral body; instead, it ingeniously leverages the patient’s own intact, healthy vertebrae as natural references. Specifically, the system precisely “positions” the reconstructed 3D models of adjacent healthy vertebrae into the normal anatomical location of the diseased vertebra through spatial transformations such as rotation and translation.

Subsequently, a surface feature fitting algorithm is employed to achieve the optimal mathematical alignment between the surface morphology of healthy vertebrae and the residual structures of the affected vertebra. This process enables the computer-simulated reconstruction of the ideal physiological morphology that the affected vertebra would have exhibited in the absence of compression fracture. Next, the system executes a critical step"Boolean Subtraction Operation"——This is a core operation in 3D computer graphics, used to precisely calculate the spatial differences between two 3D solid models.

By “subtracting” the current collapsed “pathological vertebral body” model from the “ideal vertebral body” digital model generated through fitting, the system can automatically calculate the precise three-dimensional spatial volume of the defect area that needs to be filled to restore vertebral height and morphology.

More importantly, this system goes beyond simple geometric calculations by incorporating considerations from biomaterials science. It recognizes that bone cement is not an inert filler; during its polymerization from an injectable, viscous liquid into a solid state, it undergoes slight reactive volumetric expansion.

Therefore, after calculating the theoretical volume of the filling space, the system performs a reverse deduction by incorporating a preset, experimentally validated "volume expansion coefficient" to ultimately recommend the specific volume (in milliliters) of liquid bone cement required to achieve optimal support. This process transforms what was previously an "estimation" into a precise "calculation," providing surgeons with a highly personalized, scientifically grounded dosage reference that can be determined prior to surgery, thereby fundamentally enhancing the predictability and controllability of surgical planning.

The advancement of this patented technology is reflected in its innovative integration of multidisciplinary knowledge from clinical medicine, medical image processing, computer graphics, and surgical planning.Implemented an intelligent decision support system that is fully automated and closed-loop, converting imaging data into dose calculations.Its advanced nature stems primarily from the unique technological pathway designed following a profound understanding of medical issues.

When using healthy vertebrae as reference templates, the system does not directly employ the complete original model; instead, it intelligently “resects” bony protrusions such as the transverse processes, laminae, and spinous processes from the template vertebra.

These structures are appendages located posterior to the vertebral body, exhibiting significant individual morphological variation. Their primary functions are muscle attachment and forming the posterior wall of the vertebral canal, resulting in a weak morphological correlation with the core block-like structure of the “vertebral body” anteriorly, which bears the main load-bearing function. Resecting these highly variable “noise” components essentially “purifies” the reference template into a geometric model that better represents the universal morphological features of the vertebral body core. This enhances the stability of subsequent surface fitting and ensures that comparison results focus more accurately on the core bone defects truly requiring augmentation due to fractures.

To ensure the reliability of the entire computational workflow, the system incorporates a rigorous self-validation mechanism, which constitutes another important dimension of its methodological advancement. After completing surface fitting to obtain the “fitted vertebral body,” the system performs a virtual “longitudinal split” and automatically measures the heights of the anterior and posterior cortical bones of the fitted vertebral body.

By comparing with the preset accuracy threshold, the system can autonomously determine whether the current fitting meets the quality standards suitable for clinical reference.

This step serves as a quality control checkpoint for the automated workflow, ensuring that the final recommended bone cement volume is based on high-quality, validated intermediate calculation results rather than raw data that may contain biases, thereby significantly enhancing physicians' trust in the system's output.

Ultimately, the system no longer outputs a vague range based on empirical experience, but rather a precise value derived from the patient’s unique anatomical structure through rigorous mathematical modeling, 3D computation, and physical compensation. This marks a transition in preoperative planning for kyphoplasty from “artistic” empiricism to “engineering-driven” precision medicine.

By objectively quantifying and standardizing one of the core variables determining surgical safety and efficacy, this technology is expected to significantly reduce the risk of bone cement leakage (which may cause serious complications such as nerve compression and pulmonary embolism) or postoperative vertebral re-collapse due to improper dosing. It represents a clear direction for the development of minimally invasive spine surgery toward higher-level precision, personalization, and intelligence.

To address the core challenges of preoperative planning for vertebroplasty relying on manual experience and the difficulty in precisely quantifying cement volume, related enterprises, hospitals, and research institutions are actively seeking breakthroughs through diversified technical approaches, including device innovation, material upgrades, and intelligent assistance.

In the international market,Medtronic’s Xpede Bone Cement is indicated for vertebral compression fractures caused by osteoporosis, as well as pathological fractures due to bone tumors or benign lesions where there is no significant loss of vertebral height and the posterior vertebral wall remains intact. It is used for vertebral body filling and stabilization during kyphoplasty or vertebroplasty procedures.

The product has obtained import medical device registration approval from the NMPA and is in a mature stage of clinical application.

In China,Chief Physician Sun Qiang and His Team, Department of Orthopedics, Nanjing First HospitalIn 2024, the Hexi Campus successfully performed the hospital’s first robot-assisted vertebroplasty. As of the publication of relevant reports, three robot-assisted percutaneous kyphoplasty procedures had been completed. Leveraging 3D imaging scans, preoperative planning via a robotic navigation system, and precise positioning by robotic arms, this technology addresses the pain point of traditional vertebroplasty, where needle insertion relies heavily on physicians’ experience and is often performed “blindly.” It significantly improves puncture accuracy and the dispersion effect of bone cement after injection. Currently, this robot-assisted vertebroplasty technique has entered the stage of clinical application.

In the future, the hospital plans to leverage orthopedic surgical robot technology to further reduce the duration of complex surgeries and accelerate patient recovery, promoting the safety of complex procedures, the minimally invasive nature of routine operations, and the intelligence of core maneuvers, thereby maximizing the therapeutic benefits of “intelligence + human expertise.”

In collaboration with Puai MedicalDirector Wang Boyao and His Team, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University"Thus, a case of percutaneous vertebroplasty for complex thoracolumbar compression fractures was completed with the assistance of this robot."

During surgery, the robot can work in conjunction with a flat-panel 3D C-arm to perform three-dimensional imaging scans of the patient. The images are synchronously transmitted to the robotic imaging system, where surgical planning is conducted via a navigation system. The robotic arm then precisely positions surgical instruments at the target site. This approach addresses the limitations of traditional orthopedic surgeries, such as reliance on surgeons’ experience for “blind” punctures, repeated patient exposure to X-ray radiation, and high risks of positioning errors, while also optimizing the dispersion effect of bone cement.

Compared with traditional surgery, it can reduce intraoperative radiation exposure, incision size, operative time, and blood loss, thereby lowering the volume of intraoperative hemorrhage and the rate of secondary infections, shortening the postoperative recovery period, and reducing patients’ overall medical expenditures. In terms of its development stage, this orthopedic surgical robot from Plove Medical has reached the phase of clinical application. Its successful deployment not only supports the smart hospital initiative but also promotes the advancement of regional orthopedic care toward intelligent and precise medicine.

Huakerun CompanyIn the field of vertebroplasty, a comprehensive curved-angle vertebroplasty technical system has been established, achieving effects such as unilateral puncture with bilateral augmentation and multi-point, low-pressure, directional injection of bone cement throughout the vertebral body. Meanwhile, innovation projects for curved-channel instruments and integrated tools are being advanced; novel curved internal implant technologies for vertebroplasty have also been developed, and research and development of an AI-based vertebroplasty system is underway.

In the field of minimally invasive spine surgery,The company has developed minimally invasive interbody fusion cages that can be inserted into the intervertebral space through ultra-small endoscopic channels, pioneered transpedicular fusion technology, and focused on the research and development of minimally invasive internal fixation technologies. In the field of surgical robotics, it is about to launch a remote-controlled bone cement robot and the “Smart Woodpecker” spinal surgery robot. In the realm of biomedical materials, it is developing absorbable high-strength bone cement, osteoinductive regenerative materials, and biomimetic bone materials.

In the field of digital orthopedics,We are developing an AI-assisted 3D planning system for orthopedics, exploring 5G-enabled remote surgical solutions, and applying VR technology to clinical teaching in spinal surgery as well as AR navigation systems to minimally invasive spinal treatments. Novel technologies such as curved-angle implants for vertebroplasty, AI-driven vertebroplasty systems, minimally invasive interbody fusion cages, and high-strength absorbable bone cement are currently in the R&D and optimization phase. The remote bone cement robot and the “Smart Woodpecker” spinal surgical robot are poised for imminent launch.

Automating the calculation of bone cement volume to provide objective, quantified key decision support for clinical surgeries has become a major trend in this type of procedure.In the future, as such precision-assisted technologies become deeply integrated with surgical workflows, they will further promote the standardization and normalization of minimally invasive spine surgery, enhancing the safety margin and consistency of surgical outcomes.