3D Printing of Body Parts
3D printing has a good future and a bad future. On the bad side, there are 3D printers which can print working guns (read our post on that); on the good side, there are 3D printers which have started printing body parts. This post is about the good side (and it will be updated as the technology progresses).
Please note that in this post we are not talking about prosthesis that remain made out of metal or plastic after implantation: we are describing objects that morph into living tissue once they are in you.
3D printing used to rebuild British man’s face
17 March 2014
Hopefully people who have had their faces disfigured by accidents or surgery now have hope for near 100% restoration. How this accident victim’s face was reconstructed.
Californian Company Prints Liver Cells
30 December 2013
They haven’t printed a full liver (yet). At the rate at which things are going, it will happen (with FDA approval) in about 10 years. Read about it here.
Printing Ears and Noses in China
Aug 29, 2013
Researchers in China devise a 3D printer that prints from a container of cell material:
Chinese Student Receives First 3D Printed Thoracic Vertebrae Implant
December 13, 2014
At the Zhejiang University School of Medicine in Hangzhou, China, Wang Lin, a 21-year-old university student, was implanted with two 3D-printed vertebrae generated from a 3D computer models. The model were designed to fit perfectly into her spine by making them fit into a 3D model of her spine based on CT scan data.
Conclusion
TMG cannot create the input files for a body part printer (yet!) but can certainly create the files needed for complex mechanical parts and other solid objects. Have a look at what we can do and message us from our page on modeling for 3D printers.
Have a great day,
