3D printer Stratasys’ help save little girl with heart deformation
Heart surgery is no simple task, particularly when it comes to a five year old with a malformed heart and a potentially fatal condition.
The surgical team at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami decided they had to limit the amount of risk involved in the surgery. They took data gathered from MRI and CT imaging and created a 3D digital model that could be turned into a physical model using Stratasys 3D printers
The 3D printed model of the little girl- Mia’s heart allowed them to have multiple opportunities over a period of time to study the specific anatomy of her particular heart and develop the best possible plan for intervention.
Director of Pediatric Cardiovascular Surgery Dr. Redmond Burke said that without the model, he would have been less certain about the operation and that would have led him to make a larger incision that could possibly cause more pain and a longer recovery time
Now, thanks to the model and a talented surgical team, Mia is living the life of a normal five-year-old girl.
That kind of contribution is priceless and Stratasys is working to make it part of what happens all the time. The introduction of 3D imagine and 3D modeling into surgery is, without a doubt, one of the greatest advancements since the introduction of anesthetic.
It takes medical teams forward out of the darkness and uncertainty towards the best possible solution for any individual need.
