3D printing for face transplantation: first successes and predictions for the future

Mankind is moving forward with big steps in the field of medicine, and all this thanks to three-dimensional printing. More recently, surgeons began using modern high-precision 3D printers to perform face transplants. Transplantation with this method is much more accurate and effective. Three-dimensional printing allows you to consider in detail the entire surface of the face of the human skull to recreate it then for a face transplant. This allows you to make the operation not only more accurate, but also much faster.

Use of the new methodology

The new technique has already been tested in several patients, including the notorious Carmen Tarlton, who was mutilated by her husband. These surgeries have significantly improved the quality of life of patients in the future. They shifted from an appalling state in which they could not only talk, but also eat and even breathe, to a new face that fit perfectly on their skull and now allows them to fully live and function.

Private order

For patients who seek a face transplant, most often this operation means absolutely everything - this is the end to their torment and suffering, the beginning of a new full life. Typically, when a patient seeks face transplantation, he has already been given about twenty or even thirty operations to save his life and restore important functions. And this means that in the bone structure of the face there may be plates, screws, bone grafts and dozens of other elements, each of which must be taken into account. Previously, this was incredibly difficult, but now the three-dimensional printing allows you to take into account all the smallest details. And this in turn significantly speeds up the operation, which already takes an average of about 25 hours.

Soft fabrics

For Carmen Tarlton, on a three-dimensional printer, new soft tissues were printed for her face, which was almost completely destroyed when her husband splashed a powerful chemical substance on her face that is commonly used in soap making. As a result, the woman burnt all the skin and everything that was under it - there was only a bare bone wrapped in a thin layer of intact tissue. Printing of new soft tissues is an incredibly complex process, and without a three-dimensional printer it is difficult to imagine how a whole human face could be transplanted.

results

After the operation on the face of Tarlton passed three years, her tissues finally took root, and now she completely controls her face. Now it is difficult to say that she was on the operating table and is not wearing her own skin - so she naturally looks. Also, some tissues have been stored that will be used to model the face in the event that Carmen Tarlton will have to turn to the specialists again.

Innovation

Now 3D printing will not only restore the face entirely, but also greatly simplify the process of restoring damage to the face of different degrees of severity. For example, when a jaw is broken, surgeons take a piece of the tibia, but its structure is not identical, so sometimes it is difficult to accurately restore the jaw. With the help of three-dimensional printing surgeons can now choose the size and shape of the bone ideally for each specific case. Simply put, 3D printing offers incredible opportunities to improve and accelerate such operations. It is worthwhile to draw attention to the fact that ribs were used more often since they were easier to model, but they quickly collapsed. Now the surgery is completely transferred to the femur, which lasts much longer.