Surgeon Plans Surgeries with 3D Printed Models

An orthopedic surgeon in London uses an Ultimaker 2+ 3D printer to plan his operations. This method helps the doctor and it promises a better quality of care for the patients.

Only a few months ago a study was published which said that 3D printing has some serious advantages in the preparation for surgeries on the wrist. With 3D printing the surgeries are done faster, easier and safer for the patients. A surgeon from London, Dr Boyd Goldie, uses the same method for all orthopedic surgeries now.

As first step a CT-Scan of the affected region is made and a 3D object that is created with a special software. Until now it was common to plan surgeries with the digital 3D model. This is still better than no planning but a 3D printed model has even more advantages. The 3D object is used to generate a printable object and then it’s printed with the Ultimaker 2+ 3D printer. The model can be used to explain the surgery to the patient and to plan it even better – for example you can find perfect fitting reinforcements and screws with the perfect length to fix them.

With this technique the quality of surgeries will be better because operations will take less time and there will be less complications during the surgery. For now this method is only used in a handful of hospitals but hopefully Dr. Goldie will publish a study too, that will show how 3D printing can affect surgeries.

With modern radiology software you can get a virtual model on-screen, but there’s nothing like holding a model in your hands, thinking about where it is in the body and working out how you’re going to fix the problem

Another example where 3D printing could help patients is heart operations – in one hospital they already use 3D printing for preparation of heart operations. It’s already a kind of trend that 3D printing is used for preparation of surgeries. And maybe this technique will be used in the majority of hospitals in the future.