Quantifying the size and healing of volumetric muscle wounds using 3D Slicer on CT scans in a canine model

Abstract

Volumetric soft tissue and muscle wounds can arise from trauma or necrotizing soft tissue infection. Quantifying the size of these wounds can be challenging, as they often have irregular borders and contours and invariably involve skin loss. 3-dimensional Computed Tomography (3dCT) has been used to characterize the volume of numerous tissue structures, but these use cases invariably involve structures for which clear anatomic borders exist. This is not the case for volumetric soft tissue or muscle wounds, where the volume of the wound being assessed, which is actually a void representing the absence of tissue, does not contain an explicit border at the superficial surface. We present a method that allows quantification of the void size of volumetric muscle wounds using CT scans processed with the software package 3D Slicer. This quantification allows us to chart the progression of healing in such wounds with sequential scans. The development of a means to quantify wound size and healing rate is a necessary capability in order to assess the efficacy of potential therapeutic interventions aimed at enhancing healing of such wounds.