3-D printer helps save dying baby

[Charles Kozierok]

Pretty amazing stuff:

"They had to do CPR on him every day," said April Gionfriddo, Kaiba's mother, who later found out her son had a rare obstruction in his lungs called bronchial malacia. "I didn't think he was going to leave the hospital alive."

With hopes dimming that Kaiba would survive, doctors tried the medical equivalent of a "Hail Mary" pass. Using an experimental technique never before tried on a human, they created a splint made out of biological material that effectively carved a path through Kaiba's blocked airway.
...
The next big step was getting a CT scan of Kaiba's lungs so that the splint could be fitted to his organs' exact dimensions. Hollister used the results of the scan to generate a computer model of the splint.

The model was fed into a 3-D printer that can engineer structures using a powder called polycaprolactone, or PCL.
...
Green then took the splint, measuring just a few centimeters long and 8 millimeters wide, and surgically attached it to Kaiba's collapsed bronchus. It was only moments before he saw the results.

"When the stitches were put in, we started seeing the lung inflate and deflate," Green said. "It was so fabulous. There were people in the operating room cheering."
...
The splint will take three years to degrade, and in the meantime, Kaiba's lung should continue to develop normally, said Green.

Also nice to see that they were not held up by bureaucratic red tape:

Green, who has been practicing for two decades, and a UM colleague, biomedical engineer Scott Hollister, had been working for years toward a clinical trial to test the splint in children with pulmonary issues when they got a phone call from a physician in Ohio who was aware of their research.

"He said, 'I've got a child who needs (a splint) now,' " referring to Kaiba, said Green. "He said that this child is not going to live unless something is done."

Green and Hollister got emergency clearance from their hospital and the Food and Drug Administration to try the experimental treatment -- which had been used only on animals -- on Kaiba.

 

[Paul98]

I was waiting to hear this being done in a human, This is going to be the future of organ transplants. Just wait till we can print and replace all sorts of parts when they wear out.

 

[Harabec]

I was waiting to hear this being done in a human, This is going to be the future of organ transplants. Just wait till we can print and replace all sorts of parts when they wear out.

Not quite...
This is similar to a cast, it has no biological function, so you cannot replace anything. You may help the body "complete" a damaged organ, possibly, sort of like they did here.

 

[Paul98]

Not quite...
This is similar to a cast, it has no biological function, so you cannot replace anything. You may help the body "complete" a damaged organ, possibly, sort of like they did here.

http://video.pbs.org/video/1754457671

I was thinking more of a combination

 

[chucky2]

I was waiting to hear this being done in a human, This is going to be the future of organ transplants. Just wait till we can print and replace all sorts of parts when they wear out.

Will be a boon to cancer patients. What's that? Pancreatic cancer that's spread to the liver and billiary tract? Not a problem. We'll print you out replacement organs and have the ready after you do some radiation and chemo. Could turn late stage cancer from death sentence into a managed lifestyle.

Chuck

 

[DrPizza]

Will be a boon to cancer patients. What's that? Pancreatic cancer that's spread to the liver and billiary tract? Not a problem. We'll print you out replacement organs and have the ready after you do some radiation and chemo. Could turn late stage cancer from death sentence into a managed lifestyle.

Chuck

Ummm, I think you took those plastic models in biology class a little too literally.

 

[chucky2]

No no, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about in the next year, I'm talking about in the next 20 years. In 20 years, don't you think it'll be possible to print an organ using cells grown for that type of organ? I think it's possible they'll be able to do that.