3D Printing in Medicine publishes 3D printing innovation that impact medicine. Authors can communicate and share Standard Tessellation Language (STL) and related files via the journal. In addition to publishing techniques and trials that will advance medicine with 3D printing, the journal covers “how to” papers to provide a forum for translating applied imaging science.
3D Printing in Medicine called for submissions to our Collection on “Cloud-based medical image segmentation for 3D printing in medicine: accuracy, speed, and scalability”. With this topical collection our aim was to help surgeons improve patient outcomes, and assisting them in pre-operative planning, intraoperative visualization, surgical training and patient communications.
The creation of patient-specific intracranial aneurysm clipping simulators improves surgical preparation and training. Physical simulators, which include interchangeable, perfused silicone aneurysm models and 3D-printed skulls, accurately replicate the anatomy of patients with minimal dimensional deviation. Holographic simulators utilize real-time finite-element models to allow virtual clip application with minimal production costs. A validation study involving neurosurgical residents and specialists indicates that both simulators are effective for training and clip selection, with high scores of usability and usefulness.
The present study presents realistic, patient-specific simulation-based training for neurosurgical residents, and their potential applications in preoperative planning.
Three-dimensional (3D) printing has brought us closer than ever before to the desire to turn concepts into tangible objects. Although 3D printing was conceptualized in the 1970s and has been available since the 1980s, it has not truly had as large an impact as it had in the last few years. This is because 3D printers have become more affordable and are now produced commercially, allowing an increasing number of people to use them. Early adopters of this technology were enthusiasts and finding people with technological experience in setting up and running 3D printers was challenging.
As the printers became more user friendly, the amount of software developed to improve user experience adoption increased. During COVID-related printing, 3D printing was discovered in health care, from researchers to front-line staff. These items included protective equipment and other applications in various specialties that are documented in the literature.
Although it has proven to be a valuable tool, the current technology has limitations in applications with printing time and materials that impact its practicality.
In this article, an insight into the various 3D printing technologies currently available will be provided and some of the applications in various specialities of medicine will be discussed and how they impact current practice and future directions.
Cadaveric teaching has been the gold standard, and 3D printing has been increasingly used in medical education across various fields. Students in the 3D printed group performed better than students in the conventional group in terms of accuracy and response time in a study conducted by Zhen Ye et al.9. In orthopedics, 3D printed models have helped trainees practice their surgical maneuvers and that were prepared and more confident in a surgical theater.10 In addition, 3D models are being used as preoperative planning tools to try out various procedures and maneuvers for complex pathologies in spinal cases.11 In urology, 3D models and 3D printing have been used to simulate various procedures, such as percutaneous nephrolithotomy, partial nephrectomy, renal transplantation, laparoscopic pyeloplasty, prostate brachytherapy, transurethral resection of bladder tumors, ureterovesical anastomosis simulation devices, laparoscopic trainers, and robotic surgery phantoms.
12 The ability of 3D printers to provide on-demand models means that training institutes no longer have to rely on prefabricated models from various supply chains, which makes the models an invaluable teaching tool. In addition, most models that were available were of normal anatomy, and pathological models were not very common; however, now real cases from Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) files of real cases can be made into physical 3D models.
This gives educators the opportunity to use models of rare pathologies in the classroom. Neurosurgical subspecialties such as vascular, skull base, endoscopy, craniosynostosis, skull lesions or skull defects, intrinsic brain tumors, and others are covered by 3D printing in neurosurgical education. Vascular and skull base specialties account for half of the 3D-printed models.13 In cardiac surgery, 3D models have been used to elucidate coronary heart disease (CHD) anatomy after cardiac surgery.14 The models provided were used as an adjunct to other teaching methods These are a few examples of the applications and specialities, and from the review of the literature, 3D printing was used in multiple specialities and has been used at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
Patient care
According to the literature, 3D printing is utilized in a variety of patient care settings. In critical care, 3D printing is used in wound care, personalized splints, and patient monitoring.15
In dentistry, various technologies of printing and materials are utilized to create restorations (e.g., crowns, bridges, veneers, and partial denture frameworks or denture bases), physical models, surgical guides or implants, and orthodontic aligners or retainers.
16 Dentistry is no stranger to 3D modeling and fabrication, and as early as the 1990s, people in the field were using wax to make models; therefore, making 3D printing a natural evolution in the field. Implant modeling and fabrication have been used for various reconstructive specialities, including maxillofacial surgery,17 neurosurgery for cranial implants,18,19 and plastic surgery to produce anatomic models, surgical cutting guides in reconstruction, and patient-specific implants.20 Orthopedic surgeons have found 3D printing useful in their practice for tasks from forming scaffolds to aid in bone repair,21 to forming patient-specific lightweight splints, implants, and biomodels.22 In addition, a wide range of prostheses have been 3D printed, which, although not necessarily low cost versus injection molding, provides a promising possibility for individualization and custom fitting.23
There are various applications for 3D printing in a variety of settings, including surgical and nonsterile patient care. The commercial availability of the technology has allowed individuals with knowledge of 3D computer-assisted design (CAD) and experience with 3D printing to utilize this important tool in their practice to enhance individualized patient care. These factors have an impact
