3D Printing for Facial Reconstruction: An 8-hour Long Story
17
Apr 2009
According to a publication in The Conversation, the technology of 3D printing has been successfully used to restore the face of a man.
29-year-old Stephen Power suffered a horrible bike accident which caused severe facial fractures. However, surgeons at Morrison Hospital, Swansea successfully recreated his face using the technology of 3D printing.
This is probably the first time when medical science and product designing have been bought together on a common platform to perform a facial reconstruction surgery.
Surgeons at Morrison Hospital were able to fix some of the facial surgeries however they were apprehensive about conducting plastic surgeries on the left cheek and eye socket because of the possible damage to the eye sight. This is where 3D printing came to their rescue.
A joint effort was then undertaken by surgeons at the Morrison Hospital and the National Centre for Product Design and Development Research (PDR) at Cardiff Metropolitan University. First, 3D scans of the face were undertaken and then models of Power’s skull were created on the basis of those scans.
These models were then analyzed to figure out the placement areas for new bones and surgical guides. A virtual surgery was planned on the computer screen and every step was mapped with the required action on the model created.
The next step involved the creation of the 3D implants from medical-grade titanium. The final step was the 8-hour long operation which involved the recreation of Power’s face using these implants.
Dr. Adrian Sugar, the consultant maxillofacial surgeon, said that the usage of this technology enabled them to conduct a well-planned surgery and the ability of virtually conducting as per plans and thereby figuring out possible loopholes. As a result, the actual operation, took place in a flawless manner.
Dr. Adrian Sugar and Sean Peel talked about the operation in an interview with BBCs Hywel Griffith. Sean Peel is the Prosthetic Design Engineer and along with Dr. Adrian Sugar, he explained the various precursors to the operation. Dr. Sugar also gave an idea about the process followed during the operation.
In the interview, Dr. Sugar talked about the usage of metal guides at each stage of the surgical process for cutting and bones and repositioning them. He also talked about the insertion of custom-made fixation plates into the gaps of the guide and the fixing of the bones and then the corresponding removal of the surgical guides.
The impact of 3D printing was clarified by Sean Peel who said this technology has progressed ahead from creating anatomical replicas for medical usage to actual replacements that match healthy body parts. According to him, a step further in this regard is the creation of surgical guides enabling repositioning of bones and therefore restructuring.
The usage of 3D printing is a bright step ahead in medical science with many well-known surgeons of the world vouching for this technology.
