Cancer patient receives 3D printed ribs in world-first surgery - Chamber Network

Cancer patient receives 3D printed ribs in world-first surgery

3D printed sternum: The ‘chest’ story you’ll hear all week. Image credit:Chamber Network

One of Spanish patient receive 3D  printed titanium sternum and rib cage and it designed in Australia.

Suffering from a chest wall sarcoma (a type of cancerous tumour that grows, in this instance, around the rib cage), A 54 year old man needed his sternum and a portion of his rib cage replaced. This part of the chest is notoriously tricky to recreate with prosthetics, due to the complex geometry and design required for each patient. So the patient’s surgical team determined that a fully customisable 3D printed sternum and rib cage was the best option.

Here’s how the 3D printed sternum and rib cage fit inside the patient’s body. Image: Irfan

That’s when they turned to Melbourne-based medical device company Anatomics, That design in lab 22.

The news was announced by Industry and Science Minister Ian Macfarlane today. The best new is that patient in 12 day   has recovered well.

This isn’t the first time surgeons have turned the human body into a titanium masterpiece. Thoracic surgeons typically use flat and plate implants for the chest. However, these can come loose over time and increase the risk of complications. The patient’s surgical team at the Salamanca University Hospital thought a fully customised 3D printed implant could replicate the intricate structures of the sternum and ribs, providing a safer option for the patient.

Using high resolution CT data, the Anatomics team was able to create a 3D reconstruction of the chest wall and tumour, allowing the surgeons to plan and accurately define resection margins. We were then called on to print the sternum and rib cage at Lab 22.

The sternum (the central piece) and the rib cages emanating from it, have been designed using precise scans to perfectly fit in the patient’s chest after he had sections removed. Image credit: Anatomics

As you could imagine, the 3D printer at Officeworks wasn’t quite up to this challenge. Instead, we relied on our $1.3 million Arcam printer to build up the implant layer-by-layer with its electron beam, resulting in a brand new implant which was promptly couriered to Spain.

Cancer patient receives 3D printed ribs in world-first surgery by Chamber Network