3D-Printed Splint Helps Baby Breathe Again
From Mashable
When a baby was afflicted with a condition that blocked his ability to breathe, professors at the University of Michigan developed a 3D-printed splint that saved the child’s life.
Baby Kaiba Gionfriddo was only six weeks old when he stopped breathing and turned blue, as explained in the video above. Doctors discovered Kaiba had severe tracheobronchomalacia, a condition that causes a collapse of the windpipe, blocking the body’s flow of air. This rare condition affects only 1 in 2,200 babies.
When treatments failed to help, Kaiba’s doctors went to the University of Michigan. That’s where two professors — Dr. Glenn Green, associate professor of pediatric otolaryngology, and Scott Hollister, professor of biomedical engineering & mechanical engineering and associate professor of surgery — used pioneering technology to come up with a solution.
The University of Michigan Health System says Green and Hollister took a CT scan of Kaiba’s trachea/bronchus and then created a tracheal splint using 3D printing.
In the procedure, performed in Feb. 2012, the splint was sewn around Kaiba’s airway, which helped open up his bronchus and aid breathing.
“It was amazing. As soon as the splint was put in, the lungs started going up and down for the first time and we knew he was going to be OK,” Green said, in a news release.
The university says that the splint will be reabsorbed by the body, over approximately three years, in which time the natural airways are expected to grow stronger to sustain themselves.
“This is really the first time I think it’s been used on an emergency basis where there was no other treatment available,” said Hollister, in an official video about this case.
Now 20 months old, Kaiba is doing well and living with his family in Ohio.
“He has not had another episode of turning blue,” said mother April Gionfriddo, in a news release. “We are so thankful that something could be done for him. It means the world to us.”
Green and Hollister are now testing this sort of 3D-printed biomaterial process with things like specific ear and nose structures, as well as with bone structures.
Thumbnail and images courtesy of University of Michigan Health System.
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