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Doctors Replace Patient's Thoracic Vertebrae With 3D-Printed Replica
ErnieKey (3766427) writes Earlier this month, surgeons at Zhejiang University in China performed a surgery to remove two damaged vertebrae from a 21-year-old patient. In their place they inserted a 3D printed titanium implant which was shaped to the exact size needed for the patient's body. The surgery, which took doctors much less time and provided significantly less risk [than conventional surgery] was completely successful and the patient is expected to make a full recovery. This is said to be the first ever surgery involving 3D printing vertebrae in order to replace a patient's thoracic vertebrae.
Source? References? Further information?
What caused the damage? What is the "conventional surgery"?
When did this happen?
Direct Metal Laser Sintering. I had no idea you could do that with titanium! Pretty damn cool.
Life is not for the lazy.
No. At present, our current knowledge of materials does not cover Adamantium. Basically, it's not actually a real material (to the best of our knowledge).
Source article Most of his submissions from there. Just sayin'.
"3d printing with titanium?"
NASA did it like last year, or year before that.
Try keeping up with the pace of technology, luddite.
~Signed,
Person with a 3-d printed titanium femur and 3-d printed plastic composite patella.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Yep, he barely discusses anything and submits tons of stories from there.
50:1 this guy's shilling for ad dollars.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
I'm an orthopaedic surgeon, and I doubt it's anything more than just a typical spacer that is commonly used.
OK found the article, and I'm corect.
http://3dprint.com/30512/3d-pr...
The title is misleading - it's just a 3D printed version of spacers that are commonly used - it really doesn't look, nor function any differently than the ones currently being used. The patient had a non-ossifying fibroma - rare in the spine, but benign, and will turn into regular bone eventually. This could have been treated with some bone graft and a plate and screws, which is basically what they did.
Nothing really new here.
..........FULL STOP.
Please could someone explain to me how you put the vertebra around the spinal cord once the vertebra has been "printed" ? I think you can't cut the spinal cord, so how do you do this ?
Votez ecolo : Chiez dans l'urne !
True but you wouldn't want to either. You need your bones the way they are, it is tough to get ligaments to grow and attach to metal. Without ligaments your muscles don't have anything to anchor too.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
Citations needed, as they say.
Also, 3-D printed titanium? Have we skipped ahead a century or so?
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
Idle speculation here, but in cases of severe intractable pain is it possible to ablate the spinothalamic tract? This is the pathway in the spinal cord that carries pain signals.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki...
It seems conceptually feasible and would theoretically result in permanent loss of pain and temperature sensation in the affected regions, while leaving discriminatory touch sensation intact.
Looks like someone else already had this idea...
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/...
It seems like focal destruction of the anterior white commissure would be fairly specific in terms of eliminating pain and temperature sensation without loss of other function.
These types of surgeries usually end with more pain than you had going in.
Ouch!
Anyhow, if you look at what they made, it is a lot less nasty than some of the older methods. Essentially they put a stabilizing "wrap" around the vertabrae. The headlines are misleading. It looks like a good solution to her particular problem, as it sounded like she was ready to hang it up.
All that being said, surgery has come a long way, and I can see some of the 3-d work being of great use. As a for instance, my Wife had "mommy thumb" which is where the cartilage wears away at the base of the thumb. Pretty common in women. She would be doing whatever she was doing, and some random movement would scrape the bone against the nerve, and it was like a very painful shock.
Anyhow, the traditional treatment is fusing the joint, which eliminates the pain, and the movement. Now there is an operation where they remove the affected bone, take half of one of the tendons above the wrist (split lengthwise, and somehow wrap that around the nerve, making a new joint. It's like magic, she went from excruciating pain to just about nothing, and she has full use of the thumb. The tradeoff was that the immobilized thumb was instantaneous relief, and she had a a couple months of PT after allowing the new joint to heal. But the immobilized thumb was not of a lot of use. 3-D printing might make this procedure even better
I know you said you'll not allow them to touch you again, but some medical advances recently, plus some research on your part (as opposed to doctors, who are going to bring their own suppositions and often "this is the way I've always done it") might be able to get you some relief for your problem.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
In any difference of opinion, pants always beats no pants. - Jerry Seinfeld
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No, you have to pour it in as it's molten hot because once it cools, you're not doing anything to it. That's why you need a mutant with healing powers...
Wait! What were we talking about?
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
Are you sure?
My opinion is that the women's olympics should return to it's roots and be performed in the nude. Heck, the men's too, wouldn't want the female spectators to feel left out.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
Think it will ever be possible to 3D print bone that has a genetic match for the person it was printed for? Kinda like in 5th Element, where the fluorescent green ooze made the bones of the supreme being.
It might be feasible to use bone granules as already used in bone grafts, along with some kind of glue matrix to hold it in place. What's not obvious is the choice of material for the glue matrix that is biocompatible with bone healing and providing sufficient material strength until replaced wih new bone growth. My understanding of the current state of the art involves splinting until the bone granules heal together, or, for example, using these bone granules in jawbone to build up bone prior to installing dental implants after the bone graft heals - in these cases, the bone isn't structurally sound until it heals. I personally had a surgeon graft bone material from my hip into my knee to repair a tibia plateau fracture, but that also included two three-inch screws to hold everything in place - and it took quite some time before the bone was full strength.
It'll be a long time before 3D printers place individual atoms/molecules in place to build material that's a genetic match while printing bone structure.
The same as every time - I rarely proofread forum posts more than a skim, and homophones slip through when I'm typing several sentences behind my thoughts.
And yes, I can count - my thoughts are simply more voluminous than my "prose". And I suppose it means that I don't care enough about the good opinion of "grammar nazis" to waste attention on the details of a throwaway joke. Anyone who comes to an internet board looking for flawless spelling and grammar is clearly just looking to spar. Which I can respect, except that you're being unpleasantly rude.
So, what's your excuse? If you actually want to alter people's behavior rudeness is rarely the most effective approach.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.