A semi-automatic seed point-based method for separation of individual vertebrae in 3D surface meshes: a proof of principle study.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present and validate a new semi-automated 3D surface mesh segmentation approach that optimizes the laborious individual human vertebrae separation in the spinal virtual surgical planning workflow and make a direct accuracy and segmentation time comparison with current standard segmentation method.

Methods: The proposed semi-automatic method uses the 3D bone surface derived from CT image data for seed point-based 3D mesh partitioning. The accuracy of the proposed method was evaluated on a representative patient dataset.