/ News
3D Printing Used to Successfully Remove Previously Inoperable Tumor in 5 Year Old Boy
3D Printing has been being used increasingly more in the medical field. Whether it is the use of 3D bioprinting, printing of prosthetics, or the 3D printing of models that can be used to study different parts of the body, the technology is helping doctors and surgeons make some big strides.
Surgeons at the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu in Barcelona, Spain had been challenged with an inoperable tumor in a 5-year old little boy named Marc. He had been inflicted with a common childhood cancer, neuroblastoma. The treatments given to him, to help control the disease, have been successful, but unfortunately left a rather large tumor in his stomach area; a tumor that had been considered inoperable until now.
“We tried twice but failed surgery because we could not access [the tumor],” said lead surgeon Jaume Mora.
Mora and team didn’t want to give up though. They wanted to try and find a solution to removing the tumor. The issue was that there were so many blood vessels and arteries surrounding the tumor and organs, that it was almost impossible to perform the surgery. So the team of surgeons elected to use 3D printing technology to print replicas of the tumor, as well as the blood vessels and arteries. “This way we could do a trial before [operating on] the child,” said one of the surgeons, Kravel Lucas. “These techniques had been used in the event of bones or jaws, but never before in other types of body parts with soft tissue.”
The surgeons had 10 days to practice as many surgeries as they wanted on the 3D printed tumor, so that they could get it just right when it was time to perform the real operation. The 3D printed replicas included a hard printed material in place of the blood vessels, arteries and organs. These were the areas that had to be left unaffected. The tumor was printed using a softer resin, that was translucent. The goal was to remove the tumor from the 3D printed models without harming the blood vessels or organs.
Once the surgeons perfected their art on the 3D printed models, they then moved on to the real thing. Thanks to the practice that they had on the 3D models, surgeons were able to complete a successful surgery on the 5-year old little boy. He is expected to make a full recovered, and will not require any further surgeries.
This goes to show you how 3D printing is making a difference in hospitals, assisting surgeons in complicated surgeries that would previously be considered ‘inoperable’. Using this technology to allow surgeons to practice over and over again allows them to get the procedure down to a tee, prior to attempting potentially life threatening surgeries.
Discuss this latest use of 3D printing in surgery in the 3D printed model to removed tumor forum thread on 3DPB.com.
Source: http://3dprint.com/7885/3d-printing-tumor/
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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