Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
3D printers could fabricate special surgical training models on demand.
Printed training models could be carefully designed to mimic the properties
of real tissue, organs, or even complete sections of the body. This way, until
real bioprinting matures, medical schools could print out “dummy” parts that
emulate the look and feel of the real thing, complete with fatal conditions and
pathologies on demand.
Today 3D printed surgical models of bones or organs are already in use.
Surgical planning, or surgical modeling, the dress rehearsal before a surgery
where surgeons practice using realistic, true-to-size “practice parts” that repre-
sent the bones or organs they'll be operating on. To cut the time and potential
mishaps of a real surgery, surgeons practice assembling, pushing on, even
stapling together these practice parts. Surgical models also help surgeons
communicate surgical procedures to the patient's families.
Veterinarians practice an upcoming hip surgery for a
dog using 3D printed surgical models of the dog's bones.
3D printed surgical models and inanimate prosthetic body parts are just
the beginning. Bioprinting will take personalized medicine to new heights.
In the meantime, medical researchers and technologists face a broad array of
barriers, from technological to biological to social to regulatory.
Our bodies are composed of thousands of different sorts of materials and
today's 3D printers can print just a few materials at a time. Complex organs
are full of blood vessels. Many critical organs such as the heart leave no room
for technical glitches or adjustments. No one fully understands how to breathe
the spark of life into artiicial body parts. Even simple bodily organs function
according to the precisely orchestrated interplay of thousands of different
cell types.
Search WWH ::




Custom Search