3D Printed Trachea Reveals the Medical Benefits of 3D Printing

Katie Parke, a six-year-old suffering from pulmonary alveolar proteinosis is benefiting from a 3D printed trachea. This illustrates the advances that 3D printing is making in the health care sector.

According to 3D Printing:

The only way to treat Katie’s condition is to periodically wash out her lungs with a saline solution.  Needless to say, having one’s lungs washed is a rather intense and intricate affair.  Specially-sized tools are needed for the ventilation of one lung lobe, while the other is filled with saline.Most of the time, in order to keep Katie breathing, doctors would have to try out different sizes of tubed devices in order to ventilate the non-saline-filled lung.Essentially Katie is being drowned, one lung at a time. 

Now, the Northern Irish girl can spend less time on the operating table, and undergo safer surgical procedures because of 3D printing. Using a CT scan of Katie’s windpipe, doctors at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital are now able to 3D print a rubber, biocompatible version of her trachea prior to the surgery. This saves the doctors time and, more importantly, it saves Katie time from being under anesthesia, and on the operating table.

[…] 3D printing in the realm of medicine is arguably the most important frontier.It has immediate implications to improve and save lives, and the potential to completely transform many of the riskiest surgical procedures.Unlike 3D printing of internal organs, which is still in its early stages, 3D printing of renewable and potentially disposable bio-parts – like the one used in Katie’s procedures, are being used in more and more procedures.CT scanning and 3D printing has allowed Katie to breathe a whole lot easier.

Click here to read the full article on 3D Printing.