Earlier this month, we did bring you word that doctors have successfully printed out 3D living body parts, and here we are now with more word on 3D printing advancements in the medical field. Basically, doctors have successfully implated a 3D-printed vertebrae in ‘world’s first’ surgery, and this is a potentially life changing procedure since without it, the patient concerned would have had his cancer eat away and leave him to life a life of a quadriplegic.
Ralph Mobbs, a neurosurgeon at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney, created medical history late last year as he replaced a couple of vertebrae with custom made prosthesis. It was far from an easy procedure at all, as a couple of the vertebrae are the ones that enables one to turn and tilt one’s head, so they had to be a perfect fit – which is where the magic of 3D printers come in handy.
Mobbs had Anatomics work alongside, where the latter is an Australian medical device manufacturer, as Anatomics crafted out perfect replicas that were made out of titanium. The entire surgery took 15 hours to complete, and it was difficult and an arduous task, but at the end of it all, medical science, skill and technology triumphed.