In the medical world, where technology is used to the extreme, biological parts printed with three-dimensional printers are gaining more and more place in our lives. One of the most extreme cases in which the three-dimensional printing method was used was shared recently. An artificial skull for a baby without a skull was produced in Poland.
In the incident that took place last February, the baby in question was born with a skull only one-fifth of what it should have been. At the urgent request of the surgeons at the Upper Silesian Child Health Center in Katowice and the Polska Foundation, the Warsaw-based 3D printing company Sygnis took action. The artificial skull created was as follows:
Skull produced for baby:
Sygnis stated that after the baby’s files reached them, the two engineers started printing the skull necessary for the baby. The company shared that they use two different technologies in order not to risk the baby’s health. The first model of the skull was printed with selective laser sintering (SLS) technology in 24 hours, while the second model was printed in 8 hours with SLA technology, which includes layer-by-layer hardening of photosensitive resins.
The printing with SLA technology was first done by experts for analysis and evaluation of the skull. After that, the team started to print the skull to be placed on the baby with SLS technology. While it was shared that there was a 4-day time frame for the baby’s surgery, it was reported that the skull was ready 26 hours after the request.
While the details of the event were just shared, experts shared that the baby will need several treatments in the future, where the skull is placed. Because the 1 in 5 skull part, which is in his head at birth, will continue to develop and change constantly.
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