3D-printed vertebra used in world-first spine surgery
For the first time, surgeons in China have implanted an artificial, 3D-printed vertebra into a young patient to replace the bone he lost to cancer.
During a recent five-hour operation, surgeons at a Peking University hospital in Beijing were able to remove a tumour located on the second vertebra of a 12-year-old cancer patient named Minghao and replace it with a 3D-printed part.
"This is the first use of a 3D-printed vertebra as an implant for orthopaedic spine surgery in the world," said one of the surgeons, Director of Orthopaedics at Peking University, Liu Zhongjun, in a statement to the press .
According to CBS News , before he made it into surgery, Minghao had been lying in the orthopaedics ward of the hospital for more than two months.
In the past, patients with this condition would have received a piece of standardised, hollow titanium tube as an implant, but the new technique involving 3D-printing technology offers them a much greater customisation and a speedier, more comfortable recovery.
http://sciencealert.com.au/news/20142508-26065.html
For the first time, surgeons in China have implanted an artificial, 3D-printed vertebra into a young patient to replace the bone he lost to cancer.
During a recent five-hour operation, surgeons at a Peking University hospital in Beijing were able to remove a tumour located on the second vertebra of a 12-year-old cancer patient named Minghao and replace it with a 3D-printed part.
"This is the first use of a 3D-printed vertebra as an implant for orthopaedic spine surgery in the world," said one of the surgeons, Director of Orthopaedics at Peking University, Liu Zhongjun, in a statement to the press .
According to CBS News , before he made it into surgery, Minghao had been lying in the orthopaedics ward of the hospital for more than two months.
In the past, patients with this condition would have received a piece of standardised, hollow titanium tube as an implant, but the new technique involving 3D-printing technology offers them a much greater customisation and a speedier, more comfortable recovery.
http://sciencealert.com.au/news/20142508-26065.html
