Man Whose Head Was Crushed In An Accident Gets 3D Printed Titanium Skull

This is a good development and maybe there will be a day when things like 3-D printed skulls and other body parts will become more efficient than our natural body parts and people will look to get things like skulls, legs and arms replaced in order to be a more efficient human.

This year alone, doctors have printed tubes that stabilized a child's collapsed windpipe and they've installed the first ever 3D printed vertebra in a 12-year-old boy.

Now, in a surgery that was one of the first of its kind, doctors replaced part of a Chinese man's skull with 3D printed titanium mesh that was molded to perfectly restore the part of his skull that had been smashed in an accident.

In October of 2013 the man, a 46-year-old named Hu who lives in a town near Xi'an, was working on a construction project when he fell. He plunged three stories and smashed his head on a pile of wood. The fall caved in a significant portion of his skull, damaging his brain, causing vision loss, especially in his left eye, and depriving him of most of his ability to write and speak.

finance.yahoo.com...





It will get interesting when 3 D printing DNA gets more advanced.

3dprintingindustry.com...

I guarantee you within 50 years we'll have a liquid of nanobots that forms over the wound or replaces the missing part. Weird and wild times we live in.

originally posted by: neoholographic
This is a good development and maybe there will be a day when things like 3-D printed skulls and other body parts will become more efficient than our natural body parts and people will look to get things like skulls, legs and arms replaced in order to be a more efficient human.

The problem is that our bones create our blood cells. So we can't outright replace all our bones with metal ones just yet.

The majority of our bones create blood cells when we are young. For adults, the claim is only a few bones like our spine, ribs, pelvis, and others still create blood cells. So, we may be able to replace a few bones without any adverse effects, but I wouldn't do it just for fun.

Would be cool to have a metal arm or leg. Instead of breaking your bones, you just bend them... I can imagine people with curved arms and legs after accidents lol.

Mr Klunk...I hope you're reading this you evil bastard! Too many times when I was horsing around after class in boarding school you'd come up behind me and drill those big knuckles into my skull and say "Ask yourself...is it necessary!" I'd pay the devil to have a titanium skull printed, installed and travel back to the day!

id like a titanium mesh over all of my body.

Im a clumsy oaf and always bashing body parts on things and bruising and breaking things, i dont need body armor but that mesh looks perfect, and titanium is light and strong - perfect!

I hope that mans skull takes well to his new modification, certainly looks like his accident was a bad one, looks like hes lucky to be alive at all.

originally posted by: Yeahkeepwatchingme
I guarantee you within 50 years we'll have a liquid of nanobots that forms over the wound or replaces the missing part. Weird and wild times we live in.

That seems to be where this is all headed. Technology is moving so fast it's scary. Things like losing sight, smell hair and hearing will be things of the past.
Amazing times we live in.