3D Printing Helps Surgeon Reconstruct Baby’s Skull

There has been a number of news spreading around where 3D printing technology has significantly contributed to major medical procedures across the world. There was this great story of a woman being paralyzed after a skiing accident who was able to walked again after more than two decades, a 9-year-old boy born without fingers who acquired a robotic hand; or the doctor who created a new pelvis for a bone cancer patient – because of 3D printing and ultramodern medical expertise. These breakthroughs are indeed remarkable on so many levels – It brings hope and can save lives.

The possibilities are by far limitless, as another medical revolution made its way to score another big one for 3D printing in the medical industry. It was reported that surgeons were able reconstruct baby’s skull with the help of 3D printing technology. According to Fox News, the collaboration of Medical Modeling Inc. in Golden, Colo., Dr. Michael Egnor, and Dr. Elliot Duboys were able to nearly plan the entire surgery ahead of time.  Moreover, the company created 3D printed before-and-after models of Gabriel’s skull for the surgeons, so they could accurately predict how the operation’s results would look.

Baby Gabriel was born in August and was seem fine at the start according to his father, Manuel Dela Cruz. It wasn’t until a week after his birth that Gabriel’s parents assumed their son’s forehead looked unusual.

“We noticed something was wrong with him,” Dela Cruz, of East Quogue, N.Y., told FoxNews.com.  “His eye wasn’t the same, and his right forehead was more protruded than the other one.” 

Worried for their son’s health, the new parents took Gabriel to a pediatrician, who diagnosed the newborn with unilateral coronal synostosis – also known as anterior plagiocephaly.  For babies with this condition, a growth plate fuses prematurely on one side of the skull, causing the forehead to become more and more distorted and form asymmetrically.

The worried new parents took their newborn son to a pediatrician who was then diagnosed with unilateral coronal synostosis – also known as anterior plagiocephaly.  It is a growth plate fuses prematurely on one side of the skull for newborns with this condition. It causes forehead to become increasingly distorted and form irregularly.

“The first thing we do, after we make a diagnosis, is a CT scan of the baby’s head… and we sent the CT image to [Medical Modeling],” Egnor, director of pediatric neurosurgery at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, told FoxNews.com. “Using a computer program, they simulated the baby’s skull with the symmetry and dimensions it should have.  Then the company manufactured these templates and sent them to us, so we had the exact measurements.”

Read the rest of the news HERE.