Doctors use 3D printed cerebrovascular models to prep for procedures

by Nancy Fliesler

Four children with life-threatening malformations of blood vessels in the brain appear to be the first to benefit from 3D printing of their anatomy before undergoing high-risk corrective procedures.

The children, ranging from 2 months to 16 years old, all posed particular treatment challenges: cerebrovascular disease often entails complex tangles of vessels in sensitive brain areas.

“These children had unique anatomy with deep vessels that were very tricky to operate on,” says Boston Children’s neurosurgeon Edward Smith, MD, senior author of the paper and co-director of the hospital’sCerebrovascular Surgery and Interventions Center. “The 3D-printed models allowed us to rehearse the cases beforehand and reduce operative risk as much as we could. You can physically hold the 3D models, view them from different angles, practice the operation with real instruments and get tactile feedback.”

 As described last week in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics, the models were based on the children’s actual brain scans. Data from the scans were used to program a 3D printer that laid down synthetic resins layer by layer. Prints were made not just of the cerebrovascular malformations, but also the normal vessels feeding and draining them, and, in some case, the surrounding brain anatomy. The prints each took less than 24 hours to make.

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Read the full post on Vector: Hold me, turn me: 3D printed models help doctors rehearse tricky cerebrovascular procedures

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