Corset for bronchi

3D printer helped to "print" new bronchi to a six-month-old boy

ABC Magazine based on Scientific American: 3-D Printed Windpipe Gives Infant Breath of LifeAmerican doctors have successfully implanted a 6-month-old baby with a flexible tube to support the bronchus, "printed" on a 3D printer.

A description of this unique and first-of–its-kind operation performed in January last year can be found in an article in The New England Journal of Medicine (Bioresorbable Airway Splint Created with a Three-Dimensional Printer - VM).

6-month-old Kaiba Gionfriddo (Kaiba Gionfriddo) one day just stopped breathing and turned blue sharply. His parents took the baby to the hospital, where they learned that the child's left bronchus collapsed due to a previously undetected birth defect. Over the next few weeks, the baby's choking attacks were repeated more and more often and finally became a daily occurrence. Then the doctors decided to apply the latest achievement of bioengineering technology – the creation of three-dimensional models of organs using a 3D printer.

The human trachea is similar in structure to a vacuum cleaner hose, explains otolaryngologist Glenn Green from the University of Michigan, who helped to "print" an artificial organ. The trachea consists of 20 cartilaginous rings connected by muscles and connective tissue. It starts from the Adam's apple and descends behind the sternum, where it divides into two tubes called bronchi, each of which connects to the lung. With each inhalation and exhalation, the lungs inflate and subside, but the trachea and bronchi always remain wide open. However, in about 1 out of 2100 newborns, the cartilage is too soft and the bronchi collapse, interfering with the flow of air. In this case, surgical intervention is necessary to restore the bronchial lumen. However, all existing surgical techniques to restore their patency have their drawbacks.

The doctors to whom Kaiba was admitted turned for help to Dr. Green, who at that time was working on improving the technology of 3D printing of organs. The idea was to "print" on a three-dimensional printer a flexible tube that could be stretched over the damaged bronchus, preventing it from falling off. And since the size of the bronchi is individual for each person, only a 3D printer could help in creating such a tube. Before the start of this unique operation, surgeons had to request emergency approval of this technique from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which they received due to the uniqueness of the situation.

With the help of CT, doctors made accurate measurements of the child's bronchus and entered this data into the device. After several attempts, the researchers managed to "print" a flexible tube made of biocompatible polycaprolactone plastic, which surgeons sewed to the walls of the boy's bronchus. After fixing the tube on the child's bronchus, his lung began to breathe fully for the first time. The researchers claim that the synthetic tube has significant extensibility, and will expand as the boy's bronchus grows. After about two years, the tube will dissolve, as the suture material resolves, but by that time the boy's cartilage will be so strong that the bronchus will no longer subside.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru31.05.2013