Apr. 3, 2015 | By Simon
In the last month alone, we’ve heard more than a handful of medical breakthrough stories that involve the use of 3D scanning and additive manufacturing technologies to replace or otherwise support in the repair of various body parts that have succumbed to injury or illness. Among others include a 17-year old patient whose doctors were able to take a scan of her heart and create a 3D model to practice their procedure before operating, as well as a technological breakthrough that will enable future orbital surgery to be much more accurate, cheaper and faster than ever before.
Now, an orthopedic surgeon at the First Affiliated Hospital of Baotou Medical College by the name of Dr. Lele Dong has used 3D printing to help save a patient’s life who had previously been suffering extreme pelvic pain.
The patient in question, 65-year old Mr. Liu, had previously been living an active lifestyle until late 2014 when he began to notice extreme discomfort in his legs. After his first visit to a local hospital, doctors told him that the pain was due to a small cyst and that it would subside over time. Weeks later, not only was the pain still present in Mr. Liu’s leg, it had grown worse. In an effort to help find what the problem was, Mr. Liu went to multiple hospitals in search of a doctor who could help him determine what was happening with his leg. This is when Mr. Liu met Dr. Dong.
Determined to help his patient as quickly as possible, Dr. Dong ordered a collection of tests and CT scans to be done to gain a better understanding of what was happening underneath the surface. Through the testing and scanning, it was determined that Mr. Liu had a massive tumor attached to his pelvic bone and because it had been there for so long, it had started to eat away at his bone.
“Liu had a tumor located on his pelvic ring on the left hand side of the pelvis when he was admitted into the hospital,” explained Dr. Dong.
“After conducting CT and MRI scans, we found that he had a 12 × 14 × 8.4 cubic centimeter tumor in his pelvis, and the tumor had even ‘eaten’ part of the bones. It was causing pressure on the pelvic area, squeezing into his surrounding nerves and muscle tissue, thus causing lower limb paralysis, and pain.”
Because of the close proximity of the tumor to Liu’s vital blood vessels and nerves combined with the state of Mr. Liu’s condition, traditional surgical procedures were ruled out as being too risky due to the possibility of paralyzing Mr. Liu for the rest of his life.
Rather, Dr. Dong teamed up with Xi’an Jiatong University’s State Key Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems Engineering and the two were able to take the earlier CT scan data of Mr. Liu’s pelvis and convert it into a digital CAD model. Once an exact anatomical replica had been digitally created, the team then used the reference model to replicate the areas of the pelvis that had been eaten away by the tumor. Once this was completed, the file was sent to a selective laser sintering (SLS) 3D printer to be physically created.
What resulted from the Dr. Dong’s innovative and quick thinking was a custom titanium prosthesis for Mr. Liu that would enable him to enjoy life once again without the pain that he had been suffering over the previous six months. In total, the printing process to create the prosthesis took just four hours to complete. The surgical implant surgery was held soon after in the middle of March and currently, Mr. Liu is recovering and is expected to make a full recovery from the procedure.
Although we’ve heard of success stories in the past resulting from the use of 3D printing in aiding medical procedures, situations such as these that involve highly-complex bone structures and other challenges prove that not only is 3D printing changing the way we think about creating custom products to be used at work or at home, but also in our own bodies regardless of the challenge.
Posted in 3D Printing Applications
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