HONG KONG'S first pelvic bone implant using breakthrough computer imaging is expected at the Prince of Wales Hospital this week.
A young man suffering from bone cancer will have part of his pelvic bone replaced with a stainless steel implant after surgeons and scientists raced to produce the model following diagnosis two weeks ago.
The development follows two years' work at City's Medical Technology Development Centre on how to build three-dimensional models of bones from a set of two-dimensional computer images, according to centre director Andrew Cheng Yuk-sun.
'This type of technology is vital for the surgeon,' he said yesterday after receiving a $50,000 university award for applied research excellence.
'We are trying to build a bridge between high technology and people who need it to make it available to everybody,' he said.
Dr Cheng had made a wax model from the computer data taken by surgeons at Prince of Wales Hospital when diagnosing the disease.
Now he was waiting for the surgeon to tell him exactly which parts of the bone needed to be replaced so he could make the implant.
