The use of 3D printing technologies is already enabling surgeons to better prepare for surgical interventions, through the use of accurate modelling. SUZANNE CALLANDER reports on the benefits that this technology can offer today, and what it may offer in the future.
3D printing has been around since the mid 1980s, with recent growth in its use emering as a result of patent expiration. The technology first entered the medical field around 20 years ago when it found uses in craniomaxillofacial and orthopaedic surgery. Today, it is starting to make rapid advances. In cardiology, for example, it is now being used to create very accurate 3D models of patients’ hearts, which is giving surgical teams an accurate and patient-specific teaching model to allow for pre-operative optimisation of each procedure.
At the most recent EuroEcho-Imaging, an annual meeting of the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI), a branch of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), Dr Peter Verschueren, of Materialise NV in Belgium, a company that produces software and services for biomedical engineering, explained how 3D printed heart technology could reduce the number of heart surgeries and time spent in intensive care for children with congenital heart disease.
An accurate 3D image of the patient’s heart results in better planning of a procedure before the patient goes into the operating theatre.
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