Three-dimensional printing for maxillofacial surgery
The victim of a serious accident was printed a "frame" of the face on a 3D printer
Copper news
A British man who suffered serious injuries to his facial bones as a result of a motorcycle accident has had an innovative facial reconstruction operation using 3D-printed parts. Stephen Power from Cardiff (Wales) became one of the first patients in the world to undergo surgery using 3D printing technology at all its stages, the BBC reports (Pioneering 3D printing reshapes patient's face in Wales).
A twenty-nine-year-old man received multiple injuries as a result of an accident in 2012. Despite the protective helmet, his upper jaw, nose, both cheekbones and skull were broken. "I don't remember the moment of the accident itself – I only remember what happened five minutes before, and then I woke up in the hospital a few months later," Power shared with the BBC.
To restore the structure of the patient's face, an operation was performed using printer-printed models, plates and implants. A group of doctors from Morriston Hospital in Swansea (Wales) used CT scans to create and print a symmetrical 3D model of the victim's skull. Then the specialists "cut out" the templates and printed plates on them in accordance with the CT scans. A titanium implant was used to fix the position of the bones.
To reconstruct the face, surgeons had to re-break the patient's zygomatic bones. In total, the entire operation took eight hours, from the moment of repeated bone fracture, the creation of samples from which plates were printed, and to the reconstruction of the facial bones of the skull.
According to the patient, "the results of the operation completely changed his life." After the accident, he had to wear a hat and glasses to hide the traces of injuries, and now his face looks much more like what it was before the accident.
Maxillofacial surgeon Adrian Sugar noted that the results of the operation were "incomparable" with any others he had previously received during other operations. "Without this advanced technology, we had to rely only on our hands," he said in a statement yesterday. "3D printing technology will allow us to be much more accurate and get a better result for the patient."
Design engineer Sean Peel said in an interview with the BBC that the latest achievement will further promote the wider use of 3D printing in the field of healthcare: "The next step will be to make this process more widely used by reducing costs and improving execution techniques."
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru14.03.2014