http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/02/21/surgeons-reconstruct-babys-skull-with-3d-printing-technology/Kid had a deal where the suture plates on one side were coming together faster than the other, leading to skull deformities.
Docs did a head CT and sent to 3D printer folks. They did, before & after skulls, as well as templates showing the docs where to cut to get desired results.
Pretty cool stuff.
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.
Although the side effects of plagiocephaly are mostly cosmetic, the deformity can grow significantly worse if left untreated – leading many parents to opt for reconstructive surgery.
Both Egnor and Duboys said the 3D modeling technology helped to cut down on the length of the procedure, which meant Gabriel spent far less time under anesthesia than during traditional surgery. They hope more surgeons will utilize this 3D imaging and modeling to perform reconstructive surgeries in the future.
“I think it’s going to become, over time, acknowledged as the best way to do procedures of this nature,” Egnor said. “I was hopeful that this would work nicely, and it made a believer out of me.”
