When 3D printing meets medical treatment: help me "privately customize" a vertebra

From small shoes to large villas, 3D printing is changing public life. This technology has entered the medical field, and the sparks are even more amazing - it can accurately print out the tablets and privately-tailored "human bones", helping doctors to break through the medical exclusion zone and "complete the surgery that you couldn't even think of in the past" .

In the future, how can this technology better benefit patients? How far is it from clinical popularity?

Break through the medical exclusion zone and complete the "impossible" surgery

The reporter learned in interviews in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong and other places that using 3D printing technology to assist in surgical operations can enable doctors to more intuitively understand the patient's anatomy, providing great design and improvement of surgical plans, selection and optimization of surgical approaches. Help helps improve surgical accuracy and reduce patient suffering.

At the same time, 3D printing can help doctors break through the medical exclusion zone and complete operations that were not possible in the past. Nowadays, 3D printing technology can not only print out the simulated organs that are completely matched with the patient. For complex bone tumors, the skeletal prosthesis implanted in the patient and the reconstruction of the bone defect after tumor resection can be completely realized.

“The application of 3D printing to medical treatment is bringing about tremendous changes.” Dai Kezhen, an academician and orthopedics expert at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said, “Clinical artificial joints are generally divided into five or six different sizes, and patients can only use them. It is unlikely that millions of people will make artificial joints, and it will be impossible to make a small number of models made by the assembly line to meet the needs of all patients. 3D printing can make 'tailor-made' really possible."

The Third Affiliated Hospital of Southern Medical University has applied 3D printing technology to the treatment of complex pelvic acetabular fractures. In March of this year, a woman accidentally fell from the fourth floor, causing a serious fracture of the pelvis and acetabulum. "The structure of the pelvis and acetabulum is complex, adjacent to blood vessels, nerves and important organ structures. After fracture, there is a high rate of death and disability." Fan Shicai, director of the Department of Trauma and Orthopaedics of the Third Hospital of Nanyi Hospital, said that the operation is particularly troublesome, the pelvis The structure is very special, very irregular, and there is currently no matching bone plate for internal fixation, which is difficult to achieve satisfactory surgical results.

After comprehensively assessing the patient's condition, Fan Shicai's team decided to try to apply 3D printing to "tailor" her acetabular plate. The bone plate is mainly printed with titanium alloy, which has strong compatibility with the tissue and the strength is also in line with the human body.

In April this year, Deng Yuefei, director of the Department of Neurosurgery at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, received a 26-year-old patient, Xiao Zhang. Xiao Zhang was diagnosed as a giant jugular bulbar tumor. The tumor oppresses his right trigeminal nerve, facial nerve, auditory nerve, tongue pharynx, hypoglossal nerve and other important cranial nerves. "There is a risk of sudden breathing and sudden cardiac arrest at any time."

"In the past, this was an operation that I could not imagine." Deng Yuefei said that this skull base tumor grows in a special position, not only in the deep bottom of the skull, but also because the tumor is "unclear" with many organizations. Surgery is difficult, complications are high, and the risk is high. A slight accident may threaten the life of the patient.

Deng Yuefei team combined with 3D printing technology to print out the patient's skull base tumor and surrounding tissue in a prototype 1:1 ratio. At this time, the tumor is finally "live" in front of everyone. They determined the surgical approach and scope of resection according to the model, and identified important blood vessels and nerves that need to be protected during surgery. "Make the tumor as much as possible while maximally protecting the surrounding normal tissue and reducing the incidence of complications and sequelae."

In May of this year, Shanghai Children's Medical Center used 3D printing technology to implement a “skull puzzle” for an 8-month-old boy. This is a narrow-cranial correction. The 3D printing technology not only provides a precise physical model for the surgical plan, but also provides a basis for the parental features of the child's face after the child's facial data is measured in advance.

Experts from the 3D printed artificial vertebral body research team registered by the State Food and Drug Administration, Liu Zhongjun, director of the Department of Orthopaedics, Peking University Third Hospital, and other experts believe that 3D printing is an emerging technology at this stage, and is currently in the world of 3D printing medical technology innovation products. The field of research and development is at the same platform height.

Print "live" cells and print complex organs

Experts said that with the advancement of technology, 3D printing has an increasingly rich "level", useful in the human body, useful in the body, there are printed tissue engineering scaffolds, useful for living cell printing...

"Drawing prostheses in 3D printing at home and abroad, now Europe is starting to use 3D printing fake eyes." Dai Kezhen said that with the advancement of technology, some organizations began to use 3D printing "live" cells, and even began to develop heart muscles. Spontaneously beating for a while.

"The further application of 3D printing technology in the medical field will be to directly print human tissues and organs." Cai Daozhang, dean of the Third Affiliated Hospital of Southern Medical University, pointed out that this technology is likely to be the first breakthrough in orthopedics. "Because bone and cartilage structures are relatively simple, they are made up of bone cells or chondrocytes and matrices, making it easier to print." He said that in the future, not only artificial bones or cartilage can be printed, but complex organs such as the liver can be printed.

Experts say that there are many patients waiting for corneal, liver or kidney transplants in China, but only a few can get transplants, and 3D printing technology is expected to reverse this situation in the future.

Zheng Shan, deputy dean of the Pediatric Hospital affiliated to Fudan University, said: "3D printing can also be widely used in medical teaching and pre-operative introduction of patients' families. The relevant technology is in the process of continuous development and improvement, and the goal is to pass biomaterials through 3D. It is worth looking forward to printing tissues, organs, etc. into the human body."

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