OsteoFlow: Lyapunov-Guided Flow Distillation for Predicting Bone Remodeling after Mandibular Reconstruction

arXiv cs.CV / 3/25/2026

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Key Points

  • OsteoFlow is a flow-based generative framework that predicts Year-1 post-operative CT scans of bone remodeling from Day-5 scans after mandibular reconstruction.
  • The method’s key contribution is Lyapunov-guided trajectory distillation, which distills continuous motion over transport time (not just one-step outputs) using a registration-derived stationary velocity-field teacher.
  • To preserve anatomical fidelity and geometric correspondence, OsteoFlow adds a resection-aware image loss that constrains the learned trajectories without reducing generative capacity.
  • On 344 paired regions of interest, OsteoFlow outperforms state-of-the-art baselines, including about a 20% reduction in mean absolute error in the surgical resection zone.
  • The authors provide code on GitHub and position the approach as promising for enforcing trajectory-level consistency in long-horizon medical predictions.

Abstract

Predicting long-term bone remodeling after mandibular reconstruction would be of great clinical benefit, yet standard generative models struggle to maintain trajectory-level consistency and anatomical fidelity over long horizons. We introduce OsteoFlow, a flow-based framework predicting Year-1 post-operative CT scans from Day-5 scans. Our core contribution is Lyapunov-guided trajectory distillation: Unlike one-step distillation, our method distills a continuous trajectory over transport time from a registration-derived stationary velocity field teacher. Combined with a resection-aware image loss, this enforces geometric correspondence without sacrificing generative capacity. Evaluated on 344 paired regions of interest, OsteoFlow significantly outperforms state of-the-art baselines, reducing mean absolute error in the surgical resection zone by ~20%. This highlights the promise of trajectory distillation for long-term prediction. Code is available on GitHub: OsteoFlow.