The patient was suffering from a form of cancer that formed tumors in
his chest cavity and to get rid of them, doctors at Salamanca University
Hospital needed to cut out a section of his ribs, along with his
breastplate.
According
to medical reports, usually, doctors would replace the ribcage with a
flat piece of titanium, which can actually loosen over time, but 3D
printing allows for a more customized implant. The team at Salamanca
took CT scans of the patient’s ribcage and used those images both to
show surgeons exactly where to cut, and to create a 3D model to print
replacement parts.
The team contracted Anatomics, an Australian medical company, to try to
understand how to print the file. Anatomics sent the 3D files to the
Australian government’s3D-printing lab at the Commonwealth Scientific
and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). The lab’s printer prints
by using a high-powered electron beam to melt metal powder into layers.
The result was a titanium object that looks less like ribs and more like
something you’d see in a car’s engine, and fit perfectly into the
patient’s ribcage.
3D printing, especially in medicine, is still in its infancy. The
Salamanca team’s achievement may well pave the way for more 3D-printed
parts in humans, and perhaps America’s obsession with elective cosmetic
surgery may one day extend to 3D-printed improvements. Hopefully no-one
tells the Canadian government.
Beyond being able to create truly personalized solutions to medical
problems, 3D printing allows doctors to rapidly prototype ideas. In the
US, doctors are using 3D printing to produce models for doctors to
inspect and figure out the best plan for surgeries, without any invasive
biopsies needed. Researchers are also working on 3D-printed tissue
implants, but those haven’t been approved for use in humans yet. 3D
printing, however, has started to make some regulatory inroads in the
US. Last month, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first
3D-printed drug for consumption, and the FDA is researching more safe
ways to bring the technology into the human body.
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