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Man Has 75% of Skull Replaced By 3D-Printed Materials
redletterdave writes "An un-named male patient in the U.S. has had 75 percent of his skull replaced with 3D printed materials. The undisclosed patient had his head imaged by a 3D scanner before South Windsor, Conn.-based Oxford Performance Materials (OPM) gained approval from US regulators to print the bone replacement. OPM's final skull replacement was built within two weeks, and inserted in the patient's skull in an operation performed earlier this week; this cutting-edge procedure was only just revealed on Friday. OPM's 3D-printed process was granted approval by the FDA back on Feb. 18, which means the company can now provide 3D printed replacements for bones damaged by trauma or even disease. The company says this technique could benefit more than 500 U.S. citizens each month, from injured factory or construction workers to wounded soldiers."
This is so cool
Finally a solution for people without any backbone.
...taking body modification to a whole new level...
If printing skulls becomes common practice, it's going to make AdBlock a lot less effective. I really don't want to be seeing some banner ad just because I sat behind the wrong person on the bus.
#DeleteChrome
no balls
Trauma injury that caused 75% of the skull to be destroyed surely must have a huge impact on the brain. Hopefully the patient isn't in a vegetative state...
But what they fail to tell you is it takes hundreds of thousands of dollars to do anything with the output.
I'll stick with the monochrome laser.
Yes, but will he be required to register it as a firearm?
Politicians have had 100% skull replacement for centuries.
I'm curious if it is what we would consider 3d printed. Not that it isn't cool, I just know it's popular to latch onto a new buzztech word because of the press.
Of course not, those require an advanced 3D printing technique that we won't see for at least a few more weeks.
Like Nebraska?
Solving Unix problems since 1989...
X-Men are here.
Sounds good, as long as they don't use squirrel bones as a raw material. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9exB1XR10ck
Now if only they could use technology for the boneless chicken industry. Those poor chickens have been suffering for a long time.
"My only regret is that I have... Boneitis."
just imagine an integral shock absorbing modular skull. of course, a helmet protects more than the brain, but this is good news. i needed some.
...can they print Roger Ebert a new jaw, because damn, that sucks!
I don't get it, how does subjecting an injured and disfigured skull or other bone to 3D scanning help build a replacement? It seems to me the scanning has to occur before the injury or illness, otherwise you'll just be replacing a defective bone with an equally defective 3D printed replacement. So what, the guy in TFA just happened to have had his skull scanned right before the injury/illness occurred? Seems unlikely. Should we now all go and have all our bones scanned, just in case? Something doesn't add up here.
Poor guy will never be able to ride a saucer sled down a hill again. "...if this gets dented then my hair just ain't gonna look right."
to bamboo.
Abstract
What? Tattoos? 1960s! Piercings? 1980s! These things where they burn you, or slice you? 2000s! No man, the next thing is to have your scalp removed and then you have a 3D-printed, transparent skull with LEDs mounted inside! Maybe even multi-color ones to indicate your mood!
pics or it didnt happen
You asked for it.
http://www.technewsdaily.com/images/i/000/011/153/original/osteofab-cranial-device.jpg?1362591104
TFA says they use some sort of plastic called polyetherketoneketone (PEKK) so I'm guessing structual strength won't be a major selling feature.
It'll eventually happen sooner or later. :-p
That is the only picture which is getting passed around... but that replacement part is nowhere near 75% of the skull.
Can someone knowledgeable (i.e. not speculating) or working in the medical device industry explain why we can't use some really hard material like a titanium alloy or Kevlar to make the skull bullet-proof, especially for those in combat?
Perhaps it should be standard practice for individuals in danger of serious trauma, such as members of the military, to undergo bone scans to provide templates for future replacements.
The first hit on 'polyetherketoneketone' on a well-known search engine reads as follows:
--frank[at]unternet.org
This brings new meaning to to the concept: Print Head
So did he have his skull replaced just for giggles?
I imagine it wouldn't take an insane amount of work to calculate the missing piece(s) of a scanned skull if they have other models to build on and software with math skills. There's a certain symmetry to all human skulls and only slight variations on the features' length and width etc. If you get hit by a bus, I imagine even a crushed skull or face would only require a lot of measurements of bone fragments and general size of the skull.
In 2007, hunters shot an Alaskan bald eagle in the face and left her for dead, but she was then found by Jane Fink Cantwell, a bird conservationist. The bird’s entire upper beak had been shot off, the equivalent of losing a limb for birds that use their beaks for feeding and preening feathers, and clearly a death sentence for this majestic creature. Janie and her small volunteer staff at the Raptor Chapter kept the bird alive through liquid tube-feeding until mechanical engineer Nate Calvin was able create a prosthetic beak using a 3D printed nylon-based polymer. This magnificent bird of prey has since recovered to full health and has been named Beauty, and most deservedly so. http://birdsofpreynorthwest.org/beauty-and-the-beak-project/ This work was much more of an effort to increase the quality of the bird's captive life, rather than facilitate a release back into the wild with a new beak, but that should not restrict future projects. Contrary to initial thoughts, the beak actually needs to be ‘weaker’ not ‘stronger’ since the limitation is the connection points and the purchase available at those attachments. A new design is in the planning stages which will have ‘give points’ designed to allow the beak to flex before damage can be done at the connection points. http://i.ytimg.com/vi/y5BYcu1glK4/0.jpg The success of this project has led to the consideration of how 3D printing can be applied to the rehabilitation of other animals afflicted with similar damage. With the financial rise of the Chinese has also come a growth in the black market trafficking of endangered species body parts. These most famously include shark fins and tiger penis, sometimes for consumption, sometimes for pseudo-scientific medicine. One of the most horrific trends is the growth in illegal poaching of rhinos for their highly prized horns. A single specimen can now command up to $500,000 from Chinese buyers. In the most recent cases, well-funded poachers with high powered rifles and night vision goggles have been flying night raids into nature reserves by private helicopter. Upon immobilising these magnificent creatures, they proceed to hack off the horns, either with machetes or chainsaws. Unsurprisingly, few of the rhinos survive, situations quite similar to enormous sharks killed simply for a single fin. Printing a replacement horn for a rhino is obviously many magnitudes more difficult that printing a beak for an eagle, but this is a project that is being pursued. Designing a replacement is feasible from a mechanical standpoint, but has some incredible challenges from a practical viewpoint (controlling the animal during and after the procedure, limiting/assessing a ‘typical’ use/load scenario after attachment). Excerpted from "3D Printing - The Next Techologoy Goldrush"