The healthcare world is one of the worlds that has benefited the most and benefits from 3D printers and 3D printing. It is typical to hear about advances in distant countries on tissue printing, organ printing, etc ... But that is already happening in Spain.
Recently, doctors from the Virgen del Rocío Hospital have performed many successful surgical operations in the field of pediatric cardiology. All this thanks to 3D printing.
Each heart is unique. Not all hearts are the same, some have malformations, others have rough cavities, others an altered shape, etc ... All are different and that causes the surgeon to have problems when performing a surgical operation and more in the body of a child or of a young man. It is because of that the doctors of the Virgen del Rocío Hospital are using X-rays, ultrasounds, MRIs, TAG's, etc… to create a faithful reproduction of the heart to operate and to be able to carry out operations more easily.
The Virgen del Rocío Hospital uses a 3D printer created in Spain for its research
To print these models, the Hospital uses a Witbox 2 printer from the Spanish company BQ and flexible fibers that aid in the creation of useful models for surgeons. These techniques have been used since 2003 but only in recent years have the practices had the consensus of the scientific community. We can say that in these years more than 400 real patient models have been printed and published in more than 10 scientific publications.
Unfortunately Hearts cannot yet be printed for human use, but these models help a lot to perform the operation, increasing the chances of success for the patient. Little by little 3D printing is reaching all parts and that in the end means that we can reproduce any object anywhere, being cheaper or helping surgeons to be better.