This is the story of Pemela Scott and Micheal Balzer.
Pamela was having severe head aches and her doctor speculated a very severe migrane, and started treating her for migraine. Days past and Pamela’s headache went bad to worse .Her doctor prescribed a CT-scan which revealed that Pamela had a golf ball sized tumour behind her eyeball.
A traditional approach would be to perform craniotomy (which involves making a incision through the scalp then cut through skull) and remove the tumor in several passes of removing small chunks of her tomour.But there was a great probability of Pamela losing her memories as the frontal lobe of brain responsible for our personality would be exposed to risk of performing the surgery.
Micheal, Pamela’s husband was an IT guy who came to know about 3d printing and he decided to give it a try . he downloaded a free software that would make a 3d model out of the CT-scans performed . Micheal ran the program and made a skull model of pamela and gave it to the surgeons who would perform the surgery .surgeons studied the model and came up with a novel approach which drastically reduce the risk of Pamela losing her personality.
They came up with a plan of making an incision above the eyelid and remove the tumour, instead of going for craniotomy.
The surgery was a success and Pamela was out of the hospital within few days after the surgery. Thanks to 3d printing that people didn’t even release that Pamela had an incision made above her eye lid due placement of incision in the crease of the eyelid,.
click here to learn more about Pamela’s case in her own words –Pamela’s story
Kaiba Gionfriddo was born prematurely in 2011. After 8 months, his lung development caused concerns, although he was sent home with his parents as his breathing was normal. Six weeks later, Kaiba stopped breathing and turned blue. He was diagnosed with tracheobronchomalacia, a long Latin word that means his that windpipe was so weak that it collapsed. He had a tracheostomy and was put on a ventilator – the conventional treatment. Still, Kaiba would stop breathing almost daily. His heart would stop, too. Then, his caregivers 3D printed a bioresorbable device that instantly helped Kaiba breathe. This case is considered a prime example of how customized 3D printing is transforming healthcare as we know it.
Since Kaiba’s story, 3D printing in medicine has been skyrocketing. And the list of objects that have already been successfully printed in this field demonstrates the potential that this technology holds for healthcare in the near future.
One of the most storied and well documented medical uses of a 3D printer is to produce prosthetics for a fraction of what they would cost otherwise. Although custom made prosthetics are availible elsewhere, they can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $50,000 which is unaffordable for some families not covered under medical insurance.
3D technology can create a customized prosthetic for a fraction of the cost. There are models for prosthetic hands online for free so those who own a 3D printer can print it themselves. 3D printing prosthetics is used to do great things in countries around the world, including war torn areas in Africa. A project based out of the University of Toronto partnered with Autodesk Research and CBM Canada to create prosthetic sockets for people in Uganda. Even in developed countries, 3D printing prosthetics is used to help both humans and animal regain the use of their arms or legs.
3D Printing in Architecture
Teams of architects in London and Amsterdam are competing to produce the first habitable printed structure, using technology that could transform the way buildings are made.
Future Of 3D Printing In Construction Industry:
Since its advent, 3D printing has been on a steady path forward. And the further along it moves, the more people have been wondering how it will affect and benefit all industries. In 2015, China managed to 3D print homes and other large-scale structures, making everyone pay attention to the possibilities for 3D printing in construction in particular.
3D printers allow an architect to be totally flexible in the shape of his designs. 3D printing can build curvilinear structures (rather than rectilinear forms). Using a concrete and composite mixture, 3D printers can build these curvilinear structures, which offer the strongest structural design, especially compared to the limits of rectangular forms.
- Benefits of 3D Printing over existing technologies
As with any technology adoption, cost and convenience is a key factor and that’s where 3D printing scores above existing technologies. 3D printing can be used to produce a wide range of architectural models with high complexity which would have been impossible to visualize otherwise.
3D printing enables architects and designers to create low-cost 3D architectural models with a high level of precision.
3D printing saves time in the early design and creation phases by reducing
the lead-time for architectural model production and allowing quick tests
of concepts and iterations. Since you save time on building the model by
hand, you can spend more time on developing different concepts of the
3. Ease of Use
The ease with which sketches can be transformed into models makes 3d
Printing technology adoption extremely smooth.
4. Scale of Use
The best part is that no project is too large or too small; from developments,
cityscapes, and commercial buildings, to homes interiors, and swimming