ANNUAL REPORT 2007 THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO

7
UNM GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH
HELPS SURGEONS REPAIR JAWS
Scott Lovald was looking for an interesting
research problem to tackle for his master’s
degree in mechanical engineering at the
UNM School of Engineering. Since mechanical
engineering includes everything from
moving automobile parts to fluid dynamics,
it was difficult for him to decide where to
focus.
Meanwhile, across campus at University
Hospital, plastic surgeon Dr. Jon Wagner had
a nagging problem. The UNM trauma unit
treats more than 400 broken jaws a year,
most of them in young men from ages
16 to 40, and Wagner had to fit them with
heavy titanium plates to bridge the fractures.
The patients were left with facial scars,
infections, and plate and screw problems
as they healed. In frustration, Wagner
began talking with engineers.
When he spoke with mechanical engineering
professors John Wood and Tariq Kraishi,
they told him the solution would require
a standard engineering software program
called “finite element modeling,” a lot
of information about jaws, and a very
energetic graduate engineering student.
Rethinking Jaws
Lovald became that student. He spent
the next three years inputting data on the
stresses and strains in a healing jaw as a
patient bites and chews, and he began to
come up with some answers. “We looked
at stress in the bone. We could determine
if a screw would pull out of the bone. We
could look at stress on the plate. We could
determine if that plate was likely to yield and
break,” says Lovald, who really liked the idea
of solving problems that make a difference
in people’s lives.
fractures in lower jaws. Wagner could insert
the smaller plates through the mouth, eliminating
the facial scars and resulting in fewer
complications.
From Student to Entrepreneur
Meanwhile, Lovald began to tinker with the
software and redesigned the plates so that
the healing bones would have even less
stress on them. Now he has a software
program geared specifically to solving these
kinds of stress and strain problems, some
redesigned plates, and the beginnings of a
business. His patent application is pending
with the U.S. Patent Office.
Lovald was also a student in the UNM
MBA program. He and another business
student, Ryan Smith, entered and won
a business plan competition at UNM’s
Anderson School of Management and
with the $25,000 prize, decided to start
their business, Satyrne. They have also
presented the plan at business competitions
around the country, winning 1st place in
the challenge round at Rice University
and 3rd place at the San Diego State
University Venture Challenge.
Satyrne Technologies InterFlex Fixation
System has been cleared by the U.S. FDA
for use in general trauma procedures,
and the next step is to bring it into the
marketplace. Lovald and Wagner are
currently working on papers to publish
their results and spread the word
among surgeons.
Tariq Kraishi and Scott Lovald
Using Lovald’s findings, Wagner began
changing the way he fixed jaws. He started
using smaller, commercially-available plates
manufactured for upper jaws to bridge the