3-D Printing in Medicine ,By - Alabhyaa Bhambri

Grey’s Anatomy has taught us many things. We got to know about a fifth blood group from called the golden blood. Even the effective use of fish skin gave me goosebumps. But the real and the most unimaginable innovation was the use of 3-D printers. When a nine-month-old patient’s body rejected a synthetic conduit, he was required to get a new heart and Dr. Yang, inspired by Dr. Grey who printed a portal vein, printed a 3-D heart.

However, the show isn't totally accurate, there even being instances of doctors wearing the stethoscope wrong, but 3-D printers are actually a very effective innovation for the medical industry in real life.

Adam Feinberg and his team have created the first full-size 3-D bio-printed human heart model using their Freeform Reversible Embedding of Suspended Hydrogels (FRESH) technique. The model, created from MRI data using a specially built 3-D printer, realistically mimics the elasticity of cardiac tissue and sutures. Major hospitals often have facilities for 3-D printing models of a patient’s body to help surgeons educate patients and plan for the actual procedure; however, these tissues and organs can only be modeled in hard plastic or rubber. Feinberg’s team’s heart is made from a soft, natural polymer called alginate, giving it properties similar to real cardiac tissue. By blending a ceramic material that mimics bone structure with the patient's own cells in a 3-D printing “ink”, scientists have potentially found a way to create new bone material inside the body, replacing removed sections of bone and encouraging existing bones to knit with the new artificial bone.

The organs printed by the 3-D printer are actually impacting the world. Surgeons at a New York hospital have credited 3-D printing with helping to save the life of a 2-week-old baby who required complicated heart surgery. Using MRI scan data, Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital in New York City 3D printed a copy of the child’s heart, which was both riddled with holes and structured unusually. Surgery was going to be complicated and dangerous, but this 3D printed heart provided the surgeons the opportunity to study the organ, and develop a detailed surgery strategy.

The team at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital contacted ‘Materialise’, a company that works in the field of 3-D printing, to create a replica of a patient's heart in order to treat their tumor. This unique 3D-printed model allowed the physicians to better understand the complex relationship of the tumor, printed in a hard opaque material, and surrounding anatomical structures printed in a flexible transparent material. Having the model enabled the team to confidently proceed with an electrophysiology study and catheter ablation over a risky surgical resection of the tumor.

Further, the 3D-Printer is used in various facets of medicine, cardiovascular surgery especially, be it Congenital Heart Disease (CHD), Structural Heart Disease and Cardiac Interventions, Coronary Artery Disease (CAD), Aortic Aneurysm and Aortic Dissection, Pulmonary Artery Disease, Cardiovascular Disease, and many more. 3D-printers have contributed to the proper planning and explanation of anatomy.