Automated calculation of ontology-based planning proposals: An application in reconstructive oral and maxillofacial surgery.

BACKGROUND: Structured modelling of surgical knowledge and its automated processing is still challenging. The aim of this work is to introduce a novel approach for automated calculation of ontology-based planning proposals in mandibular reconstruction and conduct a feasibility study. METHODS: The presented approach is composed of an RDF(S) ontology, a 3D mandible template and a calculator-optimiser algorithm to automatically calculate reconstruction proposals with fibula grafts. To validate the viability of the approach, a feasibility study was conducted on 164 simulated mandibular reconstructions. RESULTS: The ontology defines 244 different reconstruction variants and 80 analyses for optimization. In 146 simulated cases, a proposal could be automatically calculated (average time 8.79 +/- 4.03 s). The assessments of the proposals by three clinical experts indicate the viability of the approach. CONCLUSIONS: Due to the modular separation between computational logic and domain knowledge, the developed concepts can be easily maintained, reused and adapted for other applications.