3D Printing in the Medical World

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Modern medicine is changing everyday as new developments are continuously being made and discovered.  One of the newest advancements in modern medicine is the 3D printer.   Recently, the 3D printer has opened the door to many new opportunities and has been greatly helping the medical world.  Although it is already an excellent tool for doctors and researchers, the 3D printer is projected to perform miracles as it may change the face of medicine according to Medical Applications for 3D Printing: Current and Projected Uses, by C. Lee Ventola.

The idea of a 3D printer is so new to many of us. We may vaguely remember hearing or learning about it, and some of us may have gotten the opportunity to even see one. Most people think of the 3D printer as an exciting tool that merely creates basic objects.  However, it is much more exciting than we may think.  It works as a three-dimensional creation to fuse together materials in order to create all sorts of objects.  These materials consist of plastics, metals, powders, etc.  The newest material being used in the printer is now living cells.  The power and ability that the 3D printer has is incredible because living cells are found to be used in this machine to come together creating objects that are alive.

Before we get to the 3D printers future uses, I will first tell you what the 3D printer is currently doing for the medical world.  Right now, it is creating a lot of assistance to doctors, but it isn’t doing nearly as much as it is predicted to do.  This business resides as a small industry and it only has eleven million dollars invested into medical applications.  Over the next ten years things are expected to change as 1.9 billion dollars will soon be spent on the medical world for 3D printing.  The 3D printer is under a microscope, even though there have been significant findings, it faces scientific and regulatory challenges. The 3D printer is still in its early stages and the technology still needs time to evolve and be tested before future us.

As of right now, this is what the 3D printer can do; it allows hospitals and companies to create custom made medical products or medical equipment.  The ability to create custom equipment has positive impacts on recovery time and surgical success.  3D printing also serves as a great tool to make prosthetics.  People who lose a limb have nothing in common except for the fact that they have lost a limb, which means prosthetics have to be extremely exact and particular to the patient.  The 3D printer allows a physician to create a customized prosthetic in order to fit each individual patient.  The same goes for the making of implants.  Implants are used in dental work, spinal repairs, minor facial deformities, and in some cases, for bone implants.

Another application the 3D printer currently provides is anatomical models.  These are tangible models created specifically to a patient’s anatomy. These models are very complex, but 3D printers are able to make exact replicas.  This allows doctors to study their patient’s anatomy outside of the body. It provides practice for surgery and the ability to choose what will be the safest procedure to perform because it simulates exactly what the surgeon will be doing on the patient.  Neurosurgeons find this extremely helpful because the brain is complex, but the model provides the bone structure, nerves, and vessels.  These anatomical models can also replicate tissues and organs.  These types of models will print soft and wet, providing the most realistic form of texture and density that is similar to the real thing.

The benefits of printing anatomical models, prosthetics, and implants are not only helpful, insightful, and exact, they are also cost effective.  Producing these models are cheap, and it is only a small fraction of what the items would actually cost if the plans to make them were sent to a company.  The cost of delivery turns to being nothing since the items are made directly in the hospital.  The time to receive the models, prosthetics, and implants are now very fast.  Once the plans have been drawn up, the printer is able to create them in just a few hours.

Now it is time to introduce the future uses for the 3D printer that will revolutionize the medical world and save thousands of lives a year.  As earlier mentioned, 3D printers are able to use living cells to produce things. These living cells can be made into living organs and tissues, this is called bioprinting.   Furthermore, the living cells are able to come from the patient directly.  The patient’s cells can then be put into the 3D printer to create an organ or tissues specifically for their body.  Every year 120,000 people in the United Sates are awaiting an organ transplant in order to survive, out of those people less than twenty percent will receive an organ. The 3D printer is predicted to solve this epidemic completely.  The ability to have bioprinting available to patients will be groundbreaking. Patients will receive exact matches of organs and tissues compatible to the rest of their body.

3D printing in the medical world is still on the rise.  As of now, it is already helping physicians and patients in ways that are cost effective, easy, and fast.  Soon the 3D printer will save the lives of thousands of Americans each year.  As testing continues, these advancements will become more apparent to the public eye.

By Emerson Cabrera, University of Florida

References

Ventola, C. L. (2014). Medical applications for 3D printing: current and projected 

uses. Pharmacy and Therapeutics, 39(10), 704.