Neurosurgeon Who Uses a 3D Printer before Operating

3D Printer – Prior to Surgeries

A paediatric neurosurgeon, Ed Smith at Boston Children’s Hospital often tends to remove tumours and blood vessels which have grown in tangled shapes. He compares his surgeries as a type of defusing a bomb type surgery. He gets started with his work by utilising an unusual tool, a 3D printer.

Earlier, hospital techniques utilised standard imaging to print a high resolution copy of the child’s brain, tumour etc. Smith tends to examine it for hours and gradually develops a nuanced perceptible feel for the challenge. He comments that he can hold the problem in his hand and can rehearse the surgery several times he wants to.

At the time of the operation, Smith tends to keep the printed brain next to him for his reference. It seems to be powerful as a visualisation tool that it has condensed the length of his surgeries by an average of 12%. His work enables one to view 3D printers in a new way and most of the time; they seem to be inclined as tiny artisanal factories.

 These could be useful for turning out one-off products and niche objects, a desktop sized industrial revolution. The 3D printer’s intellectual influence could turn out to be like an inkjet printer. Usually documents are printed to array them on the desk and to ponder over them and to show them to others.

Understand Data/Resolve Issue

Smith tends to use it in a similar way by printing the way one would print an email or a document, to understand the data and resolve the issue. Smith states that `doctors have long used MRIs and CT scan to help visualise tumours, but when the visualisation is physical, it has haptic impact which screens do not.

That is the reason why architects build scale models of their buildings. By peering around a structure one does not get what’s going on. You see these spatial relations and depth of field which are not possible on-screen’.

 This tends to work better for brains. NASA astronomers had printed a model of a binary star system in order to help visualise its solar winds and they discovered various thing which were not fully appreciated according to Thomas Madura, a NASA visiting scientist. 3D prints could also be appropriate for accessibility providing the blind with a new way to grasp astronomy.

3D Printing – A Regular Part of Process

Smith had stated that 3D printing has become a regular part of their process and is also a tool which enables them to educate their junior colleagues as well as trainees which is safe without putting the child at any risk. The tech would need to be improved to actually unlock the power of 3D printers.

 If the need to use physical documents the way paper is used, looking at them for a while and then tossing them aside, material needs to be recycled and even biodegradable. Moreover, our intellectual culture to evolve would also be needed.

There could be several types of uses for 3D data. Courts tend to use to print forensic evidence which the juries could handle. 3D printers are not just factories for products; on the contrary they are factories for thought. 3D printing makes the procedure much shorter and improves on the accuracy of the surgeries.