3D-Printed Trachea Implant Saved the Child's Life (Polish News)

Sorry if this was posted under a different heading, but I did try my best to search around ATS on this. Anyways, cool read on how science and technology are evolving!

Printed trachea saved the child's life

www.pcworld.pl...

Translated Text:

We have further evidence to confirm the incredible possibilities of 3D printing technology. With her tiny child rescued with congenital tracheal softening.

Kaib Gionfriddo few weeks after having first stopped breathing. Unfortunately, these attacks began to appear more frequently and eventually turned out to be suffering from an acute case of flaccidity of the trachea ( tracheomalacja ).

Although doctors did not give him a chance of survival, but fortunately contacted two researchers from the University of Michigan. Professors Glenn Green and Scott Hollister quickly obtained approval FDA (Food and Drug Administration) to create a tracheal implant samowchłanialnego polycaprolactone.

Best of all, after a series of images using a CT scanner and a suitable treatment has involved working printer 3D, which allowed the creation of that implant. At the beginning of the previous year has been successfully implanted and so far works great. Is also absorbed slowly, like a thread sutures. This process is to take three years and allow the body to rebuild the boy's trachea.

Originally posted by Skywatcher2011
Sorry if this was posted under a different heading,

Medical first: United States Doctors save boy by 3-D printing airway tube
www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by alfa1


doh >

So does that kid have to go in and get a new trachea every time he grows an inch taller? It's a temporary measure to be followed by many other operations. Will the printed trachea stop his body from repairing itself or growing in that area? Just because they installed this doesn't mean it is a practical long term solution for anything but the doctors bank accounts being low

did you miss the part about how it is slowly absorbed like like thread sutures and over 3 years the trachea is rebuilt, it doesn't sound like they have to keep doing it.

reply to post by research100


I read that but I can't see them knowing that it will work right yet. In a few years there may be some info on whether it works. It is worth the effort to try this out though but I wouldn't get my hopes too high, babys have a lot of growth potential so it may only work on babies.

yeah, this is the first , hopefully nothing unexpected will happen...time will tell for sure...it is so neat that they did this, I wonder what other medical application there will be in the future!

Nice. Good work to those saving lives there. Gotta love that.

Originally posted by rickymouse
So does that kid have to go in and get a new trachea every time he grows an inch taller? It's a temporary measure to be followed by many other operations. Will the printed trachea stop his body from repairing itself or growing in that area? Just because they installed this doesn't mean it is a practical long term solution for anything but the doctors bank accounts being low

Yeah your right, since the medical breakthrough doesn't solve all his problems I guess we should discard it.

My God....people like you want to make me puke.

Originally posted by Hopechest

Originally posted by rickymouse
So does that kid have to go in and get a new trachea every time he grows an inch taller? It's a temporary measure to be followed by many other operations. Will the printed trachea stop his body from repairing itself or growing in that area? Just because they installed this doesn't mean it is a practical long term solution for anything but the doctors bank accounts being low

Yeah your right, since the medical breakthrough doesn't solve all his problems I guess we should discard it.

My God....people like you want to make me puke.

No we don't discard it, we test it for many years. If someone would be interested in working with these doctors they should be informed that it is experimental technology. They should not get their hopes up to high.

I have nothing against the progression of science. I do have a problem with the price of insurances rising so that nobody can afford health insurance though. I have seen eighty year old people who were in poor shape being given treatment at great expense which gave them no more than six months of life. The doctors told them that the treatment was not going to extend their life long but they didn't care because they had insurance that covered it. That hundred thousand bucks would have been better spent on someone who had a lot more life to look forward to.

Soon employers will quit supplying health insurance because of costs or all the jobs will be exported. People cannot understand this. My wife's health insurance cost to the employer is forty percent of her wages. Think about that for a minute. The insurance costs 13 grand and she still contributes to a medical savings plan to cover some of what the insurance doesn't cover. If she gets sick, that grand she contributes will be peanuts on the deductible. Maybe I am just too much of a realist.