3D technology used in medicine.

This new tool allows you to plan and minimize the incision made for a given patient, which involves extracting a small portion of the bone, removing only the necessary tissue.

Detailed surgical planning, explanation of surgical procedures to patients through life-size printed images or drawings, and highly precise interventions with short recovery times are the main characteristics of 3D technology used in medicine, and amazing advances have been made in this area.

The Biomodels and 3D Printing Laboratory, opened last March at the Arturo Jauretche National University (UNAJ), collaborates with El Cruz Hospital in Florencio Varela, Buenos Aires to create surgical guides from biocompatible materials, allowing greater efficiency and reducing surgery. Recovery time for patients.

Ignacio Marolla, a representative of the laboratory, added that last October, a new area called Biomedical Modeling was opened in the chemical engineering department of the hospital. Define current services and see where projects coordinated with UNAJ can be expanded.

3D medicine is „a huge advance” because it allows for „personalization.” The key is „a 3D print for planning” and reducing the incision made or removing a small portion of the bone, removing only the necessary tissue, all of which, on the one hand, generally offer low risk. , but faster recovery because the procedure is less invasive, the expert explained.

„When a patient has an accident and the brain swells, an incision is made to decompress the skull, and then, temporarily, you replace the incision with a material, and with 3D technology you make the exact mold. So it fits perfectly and is made in advance and with great precision,” he said. .

Among other things, „cutting guides, molds for traumatology, and molds for spacers” were created, and Marolla noted that one of the lab's main challenges was getting a metal printer to make customized prostheses, and doing so. „We are working on contracts with other public and private companies.”

Use of technology in laboratories.

The UNAJ lab is equipped with 4 3D printers, a 3D scanner, and an oven to heat the filament and homogenize it „so the print comes out better and a printer allows us to print on a larger volume of material. It's called PEAK, it's biocompatible, and we make a cutting guide with it,” He explained.

In this framework, Astral University Hospital opened a health center for 3D Medicine (IM3D), computer-aided medicine and 3D planning, which „revolutionizes” diagnostic and treatment options, said Marcos Galli Serra, coordinator of the area.

At IM3D, Case elaborates, „We can offer another service within medicine that is more specific, personalized and offers many advantages in terms of time, planning and accuracy.”

„Doctors and organizations should be responsible for which patients can use this technology, because it is so necessary and other simple, in which traditional treatments work well,” said the coordinator.

„We want to have a laboratory within the hospital, so as not to give impressions to other centers, in this way, we provide all the care in a comprehensive way,” said Galli Serra and „it means surgeons working together. With technicians.” , imaging specialists, biomedical engineers and we are all involved in the process.

According to the doctor, most of the cases where 3D medicine is used are cases where a “part” of a patient suffering from bone cancer needs to be removed, for which the surgeon draws a map in advance. The smallest area that can be removed minimizes the amount of tissue removed and guarantees patient recovery.”

These models are then used to 3D print the pelvis, detailing exactly what the intervention will look like for the patient's family. „Now we're going to present it in a more educational and understandable way.”
Galli Serra notes that IM3D also includes cutting guides to help accurately represent the surrounding tissue and prevent its destruction or damage, and these measurements can be used before surgery.

„So, the patient comes, is diagnosed, all the molds he needs are made here, if he needs a prosthesis, we see if there is one in the market with those exact dimensions, otherwise the mold is made and according to that. Medical coverage , you have to contact the metal printing company and finalize it, ” explained the expert.

In this sense, Galli Serra explained, „Everything that is implanted in the patient must be approved and approved by ANMAT, which must comply with a series of strict regulations and is made by companies that must maintain a specific trace of the product.”

And he warned, „It is highly recommended for certain pediatric patients because if they are made to protect the cartilage, this will allow the remaining bone – which can be protected – to continue to grow. In quality of life”.

Printing bone parts through 3D technology contributes a lot during the consultation because „you can show it: the patient can see it, touch it and get a better idea of ​​what the procedure will be like,” said Kalli Soler. Also, „It is very important that both the patient and the family not only accept the treatment, but also understand it and are committed to implementing it.

Astral University Hospital has a bone bank, controlled by Incucai, which „uses 3D medicine to create molds and cut bones in appropriate sizes to replace unique and necessary bone fragments, you can use only what you need from the bone. For other people.”

„In most cases,” says Gully Soler, good surgical planning means more precision when making incisions and a faster recovery with less invasive procedures that are critical to the patient's quality of life.

„The medical team plans the surgery many times more than before, the doctor has to look at the X-ray, the tomography or the MRI, and look at the problem on paper, in a plan, how he imagined it in his head. And where things are, now in 3D it's very simple, you „You can see dimensions and distances,” he explained.

The expert also considered the 3D technology used in medicine as an „extraordinary advance” because „earlier there were patients who lost their limbs due to pathology, without using any fixed prosthesis, today it has changed, it is very important. .”

„Three-dimensional medicine has evolved so much that the biggest challenges for me are for doctors to understand the proper use of the technology, not to use it for all patients, to find the right indication, to be responsible when making decisions.”

On the other hand, in the future, „I think there will be a lot of progress in everything to do with biological 3D printing”, it seems to me that it is a good future field, and that goes hand in hand with the need for public and private companies to engage in research and development, much of which has already been done.

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Source:

Andina News Agency, Diario Financiero, Telum.