A woman from the Netherlands has received an implanted skull that was the result of 3D printing technologies, has the technology changed the future of medicine forever?
The unnamed patient suffered from a chronic bone disorder, causing her skull to continue to grow abnormally and harm her eyesight while striking her with terrible headaches. The operation which replaced the bone of her skull was the first instance of a 3D printed cranium not being rejected by the patient’s body.
The operation reportedly took 23 hours and was performed by Dr Bon Verweij at the University Medical Center Utrecht. “It was only a matter of time before critical brain functions were compromised and she would die,” said Dr Verweij.
“We used to create an implant by hand in the operating theater using a kind of cement, but those implants did not have a very good fit,” Verweij said. “Now we can use 3-D printing to ensure that these components are an exact fit. This has major advantages, not only cosmetically but also because patients often have better brain function compared with the old method.”
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