Aug 6, 2015 | By Simon
While we’ve seen just how powerful 3D printing can be in aiding doctors during a surgical process, we’re still yet to see the full spectrum of what’s possible. When considering how many different parts there are in the human body, it’s clear that nearly anything is possible and there’s still a lot of unknown territory left to explore. More recently, doctors in China used 3D printing to aid in the surgery of a young 9-year-old girl who underwent surgery to repair a deformed ear.
The girl, who was born with the deformity, had difficulties hearing and was also very self-conscious about the ear’s appearance; rather than “blossoming” like her left ear, her right ear never fully “blossomed” and was instead closed off.
Determined to get his daughter’s ear fixed once and for all, the girl’s father took her to the University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen Plastic Surgery Hospital to get a better assessment of what the doctor’s might be able to do to fix it.
While surgery could have been done at an earlier age, the decision to wait until later on in childhood also ensures that any additional physical growth of the face, neck and ear can be better accounted for. After being assessed by the doctors, it was determined that a complete reconstruction of the girl’s ear would fix the issue. In order to accurately rebuild the right ear though, the doctor’s needed an accurate replica of the left ear. Unsurprisingly, the doctor’s chose to use 3D printing to get the ear replica made quickly, accurately and affordably.
To create the 3D printed model, the doctors used a CT scan of the girl’s left ear which was then mirrored using a 3D modeling program. Ultimately, the mirrored left ear would create an ideal model for the new right ear, which was subsequently 3D printed to be used as a reference model ahead of the surgery.
Once it was time for the actual surgery to take place, Dr. Chen Ruwei, University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Hong Kong’s Queen Mary Hospital orthopedic hospital director led a team of surgeons through the procedure which involved taking cartlage from the young girl’s ribs and sculpting it into the shape of the replicated right ear. The decision to use cartilage from the rib was so based on the natural material being as close to the original ear cartilage material as possible. By using the patient’s own biological material to build the implant, it decreases the chance of the body rejecting the new implant.
Once the cartilage was sculpted into the final ear shape and size, the surgeons attached it to the young girl’s head, ensured that there was blood flow, and then covered it with the existing skin of the surrounding area.
Thankfully, the surgery was deemed a success as the young girl was just released from the hospital earlier this week and is expected to make a full recovery at home. Although it will take a little while for her new ear to take shape and blend into the body more naturally, it’s still considerably more close to a regular ear than what she had before - all thanks to the capabilities of 3D printing.
Posted in 3D Printing Applications
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Once again the chineses show the world that the limit of 3d printers is our imagination. Soon " biohybrid dental implants".
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