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Tumor Patient’s Shoulder & Arm are Saved From Amputation (3D Printers)
When most people hear the phrases “additive manufacturing” or “3D printing”, they usually picture the technology being put to use in large factories, creating prototypes, or in someone’s garage who’s making little plastic trinkets. However, as of late, 3D printing has been gaining ground within the medical field, as doctors and surgeons are really beginning to understand the potential that it has in creating prostheses.
For one 27-year-old Chinese woman, named Li Jieyang, 3D printing literally saved her left arm. It all started one day last year when Li began suffering from pain in her shoulder. She brushed it off as a simple sprain, even though the swelling and inflamation just continued to worsen.
“I would be combing my hair and all of a sudden my hand would inconveniently cramp up,” Li explained.
Li lived with the tumor for over 6-months and had been experiencing pain for over 2-months before some of her relatives decided to take action. After much suffering, and realizing that her pain wasn’t getting any better, Li’s family decided to take her to The Second People’s Hospital of Shenzhen, where she was thoroughly examined, using CT scans, MRIs and other various tests. To her surprise and discouragement, Li was told that she had a very large and aggressive tumor on her left scapula.
“Fortunately, she came here just in time to for treatment,” said Deputy Director of the Hospital, Renzhang Shi. “If she waited another 2 months, she probably would have needed to have had her shoulder amputated.”
The tumor that Li was suffering from was very invasive, and it had eaten away 75% of her scapula bone. Typically surgeries to remove such a tumor and then replace the deteriorated bone are extremely difficult, if not impossible. Many patients in Li’s condition would have previously faced the potential of having their entire shoulder and perhaps even arm removed.
Thanks to 3D printing technology though, doctors were able to create an exact replica of Jiayang’s original shoulder bones, and then create a titanium replacement which could be inserted into her body. The surgery was successfully completed earlier this month, and officially deemed a success by the hospital just yesterday.
To create the 3D printed titanium shoulder prosthesis, Shiquan Zhang’s team took a CT image of the afflicted area, and then used special computer software to generate an “exact” 3D rendering. They then used a resin-based 3D printer to fabricate a mold of a replacement scapula for Li. This mold was then sent to a larger production facility where a titanium prothesis was made from it.
As for Li, she is expected to make a full recovery after some more time recovering in the hospital and additional rehab. It is expected that she will be completely back to normal within 6 months. In the meantime, friends and family are calling her “Iron Shoulder”.
This is just one more great example of how 3D printing is making a huge impact in medicine. What do you think about this latest accomplishment by Chinese doctors? Discuss in the 3D Printed Shoulder Replacement Forum thread on 3DPB.com. Check out some more photos below.
Source: http://3dprint.com/58368/3d-printed-shoulder/
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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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