3D Printing Aids Tumor-Removal Surgery

We’re still a few years away from practical bioprinting of human organs, but physicians have found other ways to leverage 3D printing in the meantime.

Surgeons created a model of the tumor and surrounding organs to practice the surgery. Image: Sant Joan de Deu

In the latest example, surgeons in Barcelona used 3D printing to create a model of a tumor and the surrounding tissues in order to remove the tumor from a five-year-old boy. The surgeons at the Hospital Sant Joan de Deu were able to practice the surgery multiple times before performing it live. Two previous surgeries were unsuccessful because of the number of blood vessels and arteries surrounding the tumor.

The team used CT scan and MRI data to create the model with technology from Fundacio CIM at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. The tumor was printed in a soft resin, while the surrounding organs, blood vessels and arteries were printed using more rigid materials. They also produced a tumor-free model of the area so they could see what the organs should like after the tumor was removed.

The surgeons practiced the procedure 10 days before the actual surgery, allowing them to determine the most effective way to remove the tumor without damaging the surrounding tissues.

“This way we could do a test before [without] the child involved,” said Kravel Lucas, one of the surgeons. “These techniques had been used in the case of bones or jaws, but never so far in body parts with soft tissues.”

The hospital has used the technology twice to model operations, and according to an article in El Periodico, surgeons there plan to model a third surgery this year.

Phoenix Children’s Hospital (PCH) in the U.S. uses 3D printing to create color-coded models of hearts to provide visual aids when describing surgeries to parents and help surgeons prepare for the procedures. Drexel University, meanwhile, uses 3D printers to manufacture cancerous tumors that can be used for medical testing and drug trials.

You can read about other surgery-related 3D printing applications here.

Source: International Business Times