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3D printing saving babies from fatal condition

 

Kaiba Gionfriddo was the first baby saved by the revolutionary 3D printing technique.
Kaiba Gionfriddo was the first baby saved by the revolutionary 3D printing technique.

3D printing technology is exploding, with exciting new applications turning up every day.

But few could be more compelling than saving babies’ lives.

Dr. Glenn Green, Associate Professor of pediatric otolaryngology at the University of Michigan, is at the forefront of a bold new surgical technique.  He’s using special implants – printed on a 3D printer – to treat children with tracheobronchomalacia, a frequently fatal abnormality of the windpipe.

“I had been seeing these kids for many years in my career,” Dr. Green told Yahoo Canada.  “A lot of times, their windpipes are compressed from the outside, so they’re actually strangulated by blood vessels or weakness of their cartilage.”

Windpipe collapse.  And no way to prevent it.

“We were having a meeting in the college and somebody said ‘if you had a million dollars, what would you do with it?’ and I said I would find an answer to this disease.”  

Working alongside bioengineer Scott Hollister at the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor, Dr. Green helped develop a solution – one that would have been impossible without 3D printing.

“It’s [an implant] made from a material that’s also used for dissolvable stitches,” he explained.  “After about three years, it is designed to dissolve.  The idea is that the splint will allow the natural windpipe to grow, become stronger, and assume its correct shape.  And by doing that, after several years, the splint will no longer be needed.”

Children, of course, grow.  How can any form of surgical implant adjust, and still be effective as patients go from baby to toddler to child?

“That’s where the brilliant engineering part comes in,” Dr. Green says with an audible smile.  “The splint is constructed to open up and expand as a child grows.  The oldest child we’ve operated on is three years out from the implant, and is now about three and a half.”

Dr. Green adds these implants are not a choking hazard, as they wrap around the outside of the windpipe, and are designed only to expand.

“These are the very sickest of kids,” he stressed.  “The child we took care of most recently had been paralyzed with narcotics and sedation for forty days, just to keep her alive.  Her parents had been told to give up hope, and just let her die.  Now she’s healthy, and she’s home.”

The challenge now is to take this innovative, life-saving procedure to the next level.

“This has been so awesome to see.  The only part that’s discouraging is trying to get enough money to do a clinical trial, so that we can actually get this out to all the kids that need it.”

Officially, three children have undergone the procedure.  All are thriving.  And unofficially?

“We’re four for four now,” Dr. Green says, “but we haven’t published the last one yet.”