When you think of 3D technology, you are likely to associate it, at least more immediately, with video game characters and animated films. In fact, in recent times, this resource has already been used for the development of equipment, toys, clothes, human and animal figures, etc., both in the digital and in the physical universe, through 3D printers, which we will talk more about for the front.
In recent years, however, the health sector has also started to incorporate it. The application of 3D technology in health enables the realization of safer and more efficient diagnoses and treatments. In this scenario, techniques such as virtual surgical planning, implants, and customized prostheses, virtual reality applications, 3D Anatomical Analysis (ATA), and bio models stand out.
ATA consists of a sophisticated assessment performed using 3D technology – based on an MRI or tomography exam -, which allows the doctor and patient to visualize together precise and detailed images of a region of interest (organs or tissues, for example) to better understand what happens in that area of the body. The process makes communication between professionals and patients clearer about clinical processes.
Biomodels, in turn, are accurate reproductions of organs or tissues, created from 3D printers. The idea is that, as they are developed through information obtained by preliminary exams performed by patients, they can be manipulated before surgical procedures to provide simulations of the surgery, allowing the doctor to establish a spatial memory before executing it. The printed object has the same proportions as the patient’s organ, which can be a heart, kidney, and liver, among others. 3D technology also brought interesting possibilities for the optimization of processes, such as virtual surgeries, capable of simulating the surgical procedures that will be performed on patients, also from exams such as magnetic resonance and tomography, used together with 3D resources.
About 3D printing
You can’t talk about 3D technology without addressing the 3D printer, which was created in the 1980s to produce parts for the auto industry. Now, the machine, already adopted in different sectors, is used to create personalized replicas of organs and parts of the human skeleton, which, as noted earlier, allow for better planning of surgeries, enable the development of implants that replace bones, as well as such as the creation of prostheses of different natures. But, how does a 3D printer work? The equipment principle is the same as that of a conventional printer. The difference is that, instead of paint, the device is “filled” with powder, gel, or metal or plastic filament, which, part by part, prints three-dimensional pieces, such as bones, teeth, and fingers. What gives the technique a pioneering character, in terms of technological application to the health area, is the possibility of customization that it offers, unprecedented throughout the evolution of medicine.
For the production of a certain bone structure, for example, images obtained from tomography or magnetic resonance are used, so that the copy is as faithful as possible to the original. In the future, scholars in the field believe that, instead of metal or plastic, living cells can be used as raw material for the development of the pieces, so that identical organs and structures are printed on the original. After spending a period stored in a kind of incubator, to mature, the organ – produced from cells of the patient’s own body, grown in the laboratory, and introduced into the printer – would be implanted in the individual. This scenario, which seems to refer to that of a science fiction work, could represent the end of waiting for lines for transplants.
How has 3D technology been applied to health?
The examples of cases involving the application of 3D technology in medicine are increasingly expressive. At Brigham Women’s Hospital in Boston, doctors are employing models of patient heads, produced with life-size computed tomography images and 3D printing technology, to assist surgeons in understanding facial anatomy so that they can operate with more confidence in what needs to be done.
In turn, scientists at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have created a bioprinting technique for tissue structures with blood vessel networks, which may indicate an initial leap towards building 3D living tissues, such as skin and cartilage, ready to be used on patients.
Another notorious episode involving the use of 3D technology in medicine was that of the Chinese Han Han, a child who became the first person in the world to have his skull completely reconstructed by 3D printers. Because of suffering from hydrocephalus, she had an accumulation of fluid in her skull, which made her head grow four times larger than normal size.