WONDERS OF 3D PRINTING

Wow. Yeah guys, don’t be surprised I’m starting with a Wow. What am about to talk about really deserves a wow, a very big one, I don’t know who was behind the inception of 3-D printing but trust me guys; it’s been a great success to me though it has not gone escalated commercially because of the price of the printers.

Enough of that, in this article and the next we would be taking a look at the great milestones 3-D printing has been reaching. Today we would be taking the printing of a skull. Yeah, you heard me right, 3 –D printing has gotten to that level.

A Dutch woman with a rare medical condition needed a new skull, Surgeons 3-D printed one for her and put it on her brain like a cap. 3-D printing has been doing a lot of wonders lately with the printing of a fingertip, a hand, a prosthetic eyes, arms, a jaw, and even a new foot for a duck. And now the human skull has been added to the growing list.

The plastic skull was made by an Australian firm and placed on the brain of a Dutch woman at Utrecht University’s University Medical Center in the Netherlands. The operation, which lasted about 23 hours, took place about four months ago, and Dutch news just reported that the patient has resumed her normal life including her work.

“The patient has her sight back entirely, is symptom free, is back to work, and it is almost impossible to see that she’s ever had a surgery”  lead Neurologist Ben Verweij said in a statement.

Prior to the procedure, the woman’s skull was more than three times thicker than a normal skull due to a rare condition. The increased thickness caused the woman’s skull to press on her brain, leading to severe headaches and vision loss. Although the report doesn’t name the condition, Camurati-Engelmann disease is among ailments that can cause skull bones to thicken

“Implants used to be made by hand in the operating theatre using a sort of cement which was far from ideal,” Verweij said of the procedure, according to Dutch News. “Using 3-D printing we can make one to the exact size. This not only has great cosmetic advantages, but patients’ brain function often recovers better than using the old method.”

Verweji says that although portions of skulls have been swapped out in the past, this is the first time an entire cranium has been replaced in a patient. And I bet this is the first time you’ve ever seen a plastic skull get attached to a real live brain.

This is kind of unbelievable for me because am wondering how the operation was carried out. Thumbs up to 3-D printing technology and the Doctors. I love technology.

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