Jun 4, 2015 | By Simon
Among all of the 3D printing stories that we hear about day-in and day-out, those that involve giving people a new lease on life are among the most heartwarming and inspirational - regardless of if they’re eight years old or eighty years old.
Recently, an 85-year-old woman from Conwy, Wales is enjoying life again after she underwent surgery to have both of her knee joints replaced - and the surgery was deemed a success thanks to the use of 3D printing.
The patient, Irena Griffiths, had previously had difficulties with mobility and up until the surgery, had never stepped into a hospital. After tragically losing her husband recently, she decided that it was time once and for all to get her knees looked at in an effort to be more active during her final years.
“I had never been in hospital my whole life so I was very nervous but when you’re on your own you can’t take risks. What if I had a fall and broke my hip? But I did dilly-dally and it was five years before I decided I had to do something about it.” said Irena.
After reading about the use of 3D printing technologies in the medical field, she was inspired to call up hip and knee surgeon Muthu Ganapathi at the Spire Yale Hospital in Wrexham. Up until receiving a call from Irena, Ganapathi had performed over 400 surgeries using 3D printing as a surgical aid and was one of the first in the UK to do so.
After having an initial consultation with Dr. Ganapathi, it was determined that a surgical procedure was indeed the best solution for solving Irena’s mobility issues - and Ganapathi would be using 3D printing to create a surgical aid to go by during the first of two operations.
“I should have had it done before, but in some ways I’m glad I waited as the technology wouldn’t have been there,” said Irena. “Once I realised how amazing it was I waited six months and went back to have the other knee done. The second one was truly amazing. I recovered enough to drive and everything after four weeks and didn’t even need to take pain killers.”
Considered by many to be a leader in the field of orthopaedic surgery and 3D printing for surgical purposes, Dr. Ganapathi, who is just 48, compares 3D printing in the operating room to science fiction.
“It is like science fiction really,” he says.
“Instead of using traditional manual instruments which involves a degree of 'eye balling' during surgery, I can plan the whole surgery on a 3D computer model of the patient’s knee.”
While Ganapathi initially started using 3D printing to help make procedures more efficient, he has since used to help speed up surgery times, too.”
“I was one of the first doctors to use the technique in the UK and I was able to show that we could carry out five or six knee replacements in a theatre list when that had previously been three or four per list,” he added.
“However, you can do the surgeries fast but that doesn’t mean anything if the outcome isn’t good.”
In addition to faster surgeries, patients who undergo surgeries that involve the use of 3D printed aids are also seeing remarkable recovery times - particularly due to the high-level of precision that doctors are able to operate at when an aid is being used during the procedure.
“We can cut the model to within half a millimetre precision and you can see exactly what you want to do beforehand and make the best possible fit. With this technique, the knee replacement procedure becomes likes a Formula One pit stop – fast, efficient and reproducible.”
As for Irena’s remarkable surgery, Ganapathi said that she was back to normal in just six short weeks after the operations. According to Irena, Ganapathi and the rest of the staff at the hospital who used 3D printing to help heal her leg not only fixed her knees, but ”they’ve given me a new lease of life.”
Posted in 3D Printing Applications
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