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Heart surgery is a difficult kind of operation for surgeons to perform, but it even becomes more complicated when a child’s heart is object of surgery. The hearts of young children are automatically smaller and more complex than grown-up counterparts. However, a miracle wasn’t needed to help 14-month-old boy Lian Cung Bawi with his failing heart. Fortunately, a 3D printer used to print out a 3D model of the failing heart, was able to help out the boy.
University of Louisville Physicians’s heart surgeon Erle Austin at Kosair Children’s Hospital in Louisville is well-experienced in performing surgery. Nevertheless, it was very clear to him that this particular operation on a young heart would implicate a high risk, due to the fact a young heart consists of tiny internal structures which are hard to see clearly.
Therefore, he went to J.B Speed School of Engineering at the University of Louisville, where a computer model generated by the boy’s radiologist was used to print out three bigger versions of cross-sections of the boy’s heart. The team chose for three versions, as a heart model cut into thirds would provide a better view for the surgeons. This computer model was made using as many as thousands of cross-sections of hospital X-rays.
Then a MakerBot Replicator 2X was used in order to print out the digital 3D model. Using layer-by-layer techniques, 3D printed models of the heart could be made. Per inch, the MakerBot 3D printer assembled as many as 250 layers of plastic and it resulted in models of cross-sections of the heart which were two times the actual size of the original one, with the purpose of providing a better view of the heart for the surgical team.
This helped the surgeons to get a better idea of what the boy’s heart looked like. Because they could study this 3D version of the heart, the team was able to cut down in operating time and reduce exploratory surgeries. In addition, follow-up operations weren’t required anymore. Austin told the Courier Journal: “Once I had a model, I knew exactly what I needed to do and how I could do it. It was a tremendous benefit.
