Now this is definitely initiative that we are talking about here – while hospitals do happen to possess plenty of money’s worth of imaging technology at their fingertips, more often than not it would be the surgeons who would need to carve up a patient to be able to best know the next step to arrest or treat a particular illness. After all, the most simple of procedures, including knowing the actual size and composition of the affected body part, could make a huge difference in the final outcome. John Cousins, who collapsed in pain from appendicitis and a 3.5cm “stags head” kidney stone, decided to take matter into his own hands by creating a 3D printed replica model of his kidney so that the specialists can have as much information as possible.
In fact, surgeons at Southampton General Hospital actually referenced the model over the duration of the two hour operation that was made to remove the stone, and it was this very same model that enabled them to locate the best point of entry, resulting in a greater precision level than ever before, not to mention causing the surgery time to be shortened. After the operation, surgeon Bhaskar Somani intends to plan a trial that will concern another 20 patients at the hospital in order to see how 3D printed models can aid future cases, how cool is that? Looks like medical science continues to advance at speeds that were previously unheard of.
Filed in . Read more about 3D Printing. Source: bbc