3D printing technology has helped to reconstruct a patient's skull
When 29-year-old Alexander's trivial chronic maxillary sinusitis "developed" into a purulent inflammation of the brain lining, surgeons had to make large holes in his skull. About a year later, already after recovery, it was time to close these holes. The medics used 3D printing technology to accurately model it.
As doctors and neurosurgeons of the Kirov Regional Clinical Hospital recall, in August last year they received a patient who began to lose his right arm and leg, and also lost his speech. The medical records indicated that some time earlier he had undergone a maxillary sinus surgery. However, a CT scan done at the regional hospital showed that the purulent inflammation had spread to the brain lining.
Alexander underwent two serious surgeries, which required opening the skull over a large area. The intervention was successful. Within a year, the patient had recovered. In October, it was time to close the large holes left after the operations.
- The patient had two large and complex defects, so we decided to use 3D skull modeling technology for the first time in our practice," said neurosurgeon Denis Starkov. - With the assistance of colleagues from the Center for Traumatology, Orthopedics and Neurosurgery, a model of a part of the skull was printed on a 3D printer based on CT scan data. We used it to pre-model the size and shape of the titanium plates taking into account the anatomical features of the patient.
The use of 3D printing significantly accelerated and facilitated the process of creating implants and allowed us to achieve a good cosmetic effect.
- Only after the surgery, when I came to my senses, I read that with such a severe disease I could have died or remained profoundly disabled. I hope that in the future I will remember all this as a terrible dream," Alexander shared before being discharged.
An average of five cases of such purulent inflammations of the brain sheath are recorded in the Kirov region per year. As doctors note, the modern equipment that has been made available to neurosurgeons of the Kirov Regional Hospital in recent years helps to bring patients with such serious problems of the central nervous system back to life and, moreover, to achieve their qualitative recovery.