Medical 3D Printing & BioprintingDr Varun Tyagi is a medical doctor who practices in India and writes about remarkable and historical landmarks throughout the medical world. Dr Varun believes that 3D printing can help democratize medical care, making medical devices affordable and available to everyone on the planet.
13 year-old girl Rebekah Jensen from Virgina was surprised when she received 3D Printed prosthetic hand at Marymount University. When falimy was rejected the traditional prosthetic hand by insurance companies, Dr. Eric Bubar through e-NABLE helped Rebekah for prosthetic hand costing as low as 50$.
Back in 1845 when Dental Surgeon developed hand prosthetic made of whalebone and metal pulleys, it was used by Corporal Coles until his last day. This went to Health Museum of South Australia, where it became inspiration for Ivan Owen to develop the world's first 3D Printed Hand Prosthetic.
Researchers at Lawrence Livermore,California , have successfully 3D printed live blood vessels from cells and organic material. These vessels are capable of self-assembling and delivering nutrients, but are being worked on for further organization before they can be used in real transplants.
Researchers at Drexel university of Philadelphia and Tsinghua University of Beijing are claiming that using embryonic stem cells combined with hydrogel scaffolds, they can finally print micro-organs. These micro-organs can be anything from brain tissue, heart cells or bone.
New York state resident Theresa Flint was diagnosed with an aneurysm but it became worse when surgery couldn't be done due to complications. Stratasys, leading 3D printing production, helped the surgeons develop 3D model of cerebral vessels of Flint and a successful brain surgery.
After 5 years of self-imposed isolation, Dallan Jennet finally found 3D nose transplant at New York city which totally reconstructed his facial scarring and holed nose. This was indeed the first time in United states when 3D-printed nose was successfully implanted.
Researchers at Rice University and University of Pennsylvania have developed a 3D Printed Implant with an intricate network of blood vessels using sugar and silicone. This implant will deliver oxygen and nutrients to all cells in an artificial organ or tissue implant and thereby, helping them grow despite body liability to supply them.
Scientists at Russian company, 3D Bioprinting Solutions, successfully printed the thyroid gland which was transplanted in a mice. The medical breakthrough involved 3D printing of thyroid using biological materials and irradiation of thyroid of mice before it could be implanted.
Researchers at Northeastern University have developed medical hardware which can be 3D printed specific for any sized newborn. The matching geometry with patient will help avoiding complications like puncturing veins and injuring delicate tissues.
Mach7 Technologies, a global provider of enterprise medical image management solutions, and 3D Medical Limited announced signing of definitive agreement to merge together which will provide access via public capital markets for Mach7 while preserving corporate self-determination. Upon approval and completion of the agreement, the merged entity will be publicly listed on the Australian stock exchange (ASX) and will trade as "Mach7 Technologies Ltd".
A team led by biomedical engineer Adam Feinberg at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, can now print 3D biological materials that don’t collapse under their own weight as they form. Freeform Reversible Embedding of Suspended Hydrogels (FRESH) was introduced by Feinberg and his colleagues to tackle the collapsing issue with previous materials.
Jenny Qiu and team from the Texas Tech University and A&M University have concluded that incorporating a very viscous polymer called Alginate, can strengthen Hydrogel. This new hydrogel form is exactly like natural cartilage, and could possibly be used for replacement like Knee Cartilage.
3D printing may appear fantasy, but it's applications are far real than imagined. Nevertheless, with expanding future, it has already began to bring new lives to people. These 6 purely fascinating events including cranium, vertebra, rib cage, nose, airway and a new arm were some of the landmarks for 3D printing emerging as marvels of technology.
Mia Gonzalez, a 5 year-old girl received a successful open heart surgery at Miami’s Nicklaus Children’s Hospital after the surgeon used the 3D Printed model of her heart. Mia was suffering from congenital defect, Double aortic arch, which had been misdiagnosed as Asthma. Surgeon Dr. Redmond Burke visualized the whole operation before it could be actually performed.
Using the 3D printing technology, Doctors of University of Michigan successfully performed a surgery on a foetus. The unknown abnormality could have block the baby's airway at birth, but 3D Printed model of foetus face using MRI removed the guesswork of the surgery.
Researchers at the University of Florida have developed 3D printed Gel made of acrylic acid polymer. This Gel will acts as a scaffold to hold the structure in place during the printing process, thereby, establishing the future of 3D Printed Organs.
Tyler and Tyson were two twins sharing chest, abdomen and a liver creating difficulties for their surgical separation. However, using 3D Printing technology, surgeons at Children's National Medical Center in Washington created models and were able to visualize the whole operation before the actual surgery, thereby leading a successful surgery.
Collaborators from Virginia Tech and some universities have developed a 3D Prined Guide that can actually help regrow the nerves. Although nerve damage is permanent, and it is impossible for them to regenerate, while 3D Printing comes just at time to make things possible.
A 54 year old Australian patient of cancer received Titanium rib cage and sternum after considering the option better than plate implants. CSIRO, the federal government agency for scientific research in Australia, claimed their 3D printed titanium model was perfect for identically mimicking the intricate structures of the sternum and ribs and the patient was discharged healthy and recovered well.
Dr. Tarek Loubani from Gaza has developed 3D Printed Stethoscope called Glia. While Glia Stethocsope beats a $200 Littman stethoscope for price, Loubani has report data that it beats every other stethoscope in sound quality.
Ravid Koriat Barkan, a recent graduate of the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, created a bottle/syringe hybrid that allows for extremely accurate measurements of the amount of milk given to a premature baby. The system can also manually feed the baby directly from the mother’s breast, or if necessary, by connecting it via a feeding tube directly into the baby’s stomach.
Tarek Loubani, an emergency physician working in the Gaza strip, has 3D-printed a 30 cent stethoscope that beats the world's best $200 equivalent as part of a project to bottom-out the cost of medical devices.
E-NABLE is seeking help from the community of 3D printer owners worldwide to print 1000 hands by mid-September. To support this effort, a variety of 3D printer and filament manufacturers are offering discounts.
The Star reported that a Toronto cteenager, concerned about his mother's irregular heart rhythms, built a wrist device that detects a heart beat and can make a virtual phone call.
A team of surgeons in Dublin, Ireland recently utilized a 3D printed, color coded heart model to aid them in the preparation and performance of heart transplant surgery
Researchers at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES) say they have found a way to replicate and mimic brain tissue with 3D printed neural cells.
An prenatal ultrasound service provider in the UK creates lifelike models of fetuses from 3D scans so that expectant mums can meet their babies BEFORE they are born.
Using a CT scan of a patient's normal opposite ear, doctors in China were able to 3D print a mirror image of it, and this model was aided surgeons in building a new ear for the other side.
Sahas Softech LLP, based in India, is now making 3D printed heart exact replica models available for pediatric surgery.
Irvine High School student Nilay Mehta, 17, created a robotic arm and hand constructed with 3D printing techniques and entered in three sciences fairs.
Dr. Vives, Head of the Maxillofacial Surgery Department at the University Hospital of La Réunion, used a patient-specific mini-plate system from OBL, a Materialise company, to return Maxime’s eye to a physically and aesthetically comfortable position.
BOOMcast is a 3D printed cast with embedded electronics that enable a doctor to monitor the leg’s physical state from anywhere in the world.
Aquahand is an exoskeleton hand for stroke victims with spastic or flaccid muscle tone trying to regain grasp motion or fine motor skills.
Boston Children's Hospital physicians report the first cases of children benefiting from 3D printing of their anatomy before undergoing high-risk brain procedures. Three of the four children had arteriovenous malformations (AVMs), in which tangles of arteries and veins connect abnormally, and were treated surgically.
YouBionics says that their 3d printed bionic smart hands could be ready for production and human testing by year end.
Designer creates a Smart Desktop Medicine Organizer, a coffee machine sized box that automatically organizes medications and connects use directly to a doctor or pharmacy.
Bespoke Innovations has started using 3D printing to make custom cast prototypes that would stabilize broken body parts and can be worn in the shower and can even make the healing process more efficient.
Downhill Bicycle Racer Tom Wheeler has produced a new generation arm brace using 3D printing to assist with downhill riding.
Surgeons at the Handan General Orthopaedic Hospital in China have used 3D printing to repair a young male patient’s severely deformed legs.
The Prosthetics and Assistive Technology Challenge two-day event offered designers from the general public the opportunity to transform lives by improving the quality of life for veterans through the creation of personalized, tailored 3D printed devices.