Jason Ayres, a family doctor in Alabama, was speechless as he held his adopted son Patrick’s heart in his hands. Well, a replica of his son’s heart — an exact replica, 3-D printed before the 3-year-old boy had lifesaving open-heart surgery.
Patrick was one of the first beneficiaries of 3-D printing technology at Boston Children’s Hospital, which last year helped open a new frontier in pediatric cardiac surgery. Patrick was born with numerous cardiac problems; in addition to double outlet right ventricle and a complete atrioventricular canal defect, his heart lay backwards in his chest.
“We knew early on that he’d need complex surgery to survive,” says Jason.
Finely detailed models of Patrick’s heart gave surgeon Sitaram Emani, MD, at the Boston Children’sHeart Center an up-close-and-personal look at his complex cardiac anatomy.
Emani, who directs the Complex Biventricular Repair Program at the Heart Center, says that it can take anywhere between 30 minutes and an hour in the operating room to sort out a patient’s cardiac anatomy. That’s all extra time the child is on cardiopulmonary bypass and anesthesia — precious time that the 3-D models can save.
“Not only can we eliminate this planning time in the operating room,” says Emani, “but we believe surgical techniques and outcomes will also improve due to that pre-planning.”
Read the full post on Vector: 3-D printed hearts of hope
The opinions expressed in this blog post are the author’s only and do not necessarily reflect those of MassDevice.com or its employees.
The post Holding onto the heart: 3D printing heart models appeared first on MassDevice.
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