3D PRINTING IN MEDICINE
New technique saves lives of three babies / Bio-based polycaprolactone tracheal splint developed / Device clears airways and restores breathing in tracheobronchomalacia sufferers
3D printing has helped saved the lives of three babies suffering from a terminal form of tracheobronchomalacia at the University of Michigan’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital (www.mottchildren.org). The condition causes a sufferer’s windpipe to periodically collapse and prevents normal breathing.
The airways of the babies, aged three, five and 16 months, were kept open using customised tracheal splints produced individually for each patient. The devices were created directly from CT scans of the babies’ tracheas that were used to create an image-based computer model of the splint, with laser-based 3D printing to produce the device in bio-based polycaprolactone. The splints kept the airways clear, restored breathing and saved the lives of the patients.
Glenn Green, associate professor of paediatric otolaryngology at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, and his colleague Scott Hollister, professor of biomedical engineering and mechanical engineering and associate professor of surgery at the University of Michigan (www.umich.edu), were responsible for creating and implanting the customised tracheal splints for each patient.
The researchers have closely followed the babies’ cases to see how well the bioresorable splints implanted in all three patients have worked and the results were published recently in the journal “Science Translational Medicine”.
Green, senior author of the study, said: “These cases broke new ground for us because we were able to use 3D printing to design a device that successfully restored patients’ breathing through a procedure that had never been done before. Before this procedure, babies with severe tracheobronchomalacia had little chance of surviving. Today, our first patient Kaiba is an active, healthy three-year-old in preschool with a bright future. The device worked better than we could have ever imagined.”
Since the initial work with the three babies, the hospital has been able to successfully replicate the procedure and has been watching patients closely to see whether the device is performing as intended, adding that the treatment continues to prove to be a promising option for children facing a life-threatening condition that previously had no cure.
The airways of the babies, aged three, five and 16 months, were kept open using customised tracheal splints produced individually for each patient. The devices were created directly from CT scans of the babies’ tracheas that were used to create an image-based computer model of the splint, with laser-based 3D printing to produce the device in bio-based polycaprolactone. The splints kept the airways clear, restored breathing and saved the lives of the patients.
Glenn Green, associate professor of paediatric otolaryngology at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, and his colleague Scott Hollister, professor of biomedical engineering and mechanical engineering and associate professor of surgery at the University of Michigan (www.umich.edu), were responsible for creating and implanting the customised tracheal splints for each patient.
The researchers have closely followed the babies’ cases to see how well the bioresorable splints implanted in all three patients have worked and the results were published recently in the journal “Science Translational Medicine”.
Green, senior author of the study, said: “These cases broke new ground for us because we were able to use 3D printing to design a device that successfully restored patients’ breathing through a procedure that had never been done before. Before this procedure, babies with severe tracheobronchomalacia had little chance of surviving. Today, our first patient Kaiba is an active, healthy three-year-old in preschool with a bright future. The device worked better than we could have ever imagined.”
Since the initial work with the three babies, the hospital has been able to successfully replicate the procedure and has been watching patients closely to see whether the device is performing as intended, adding that the treatment continues to prove to be a promising option for children facing a life-threatening condition that previously had no cure.
01.07.2015 Plasteurope.com [231548-0]
Published on 01.07.2015