First 3D Printed Skull

jackninja1 · March 27, 2014

For the first time a real human skull has been completely replaced by a 3D printed one!

The dutch (yay) surgeon Bon Verweij has successfully replaced a skull from a 22 year old woman with a 3D printed skull. The procedure was conducted a few months ago but now details are being released.

Surgeons say that this is a worlds first.

The patient suffered from a disease which made her bones continue to grow. This led to the increase in thickness of her skull. The skull was 5 cm thick where it normally is 1 cm.

An operation was needed because the pressure inside her skull was increasing and she was having headache and loosing her vision because of the pressure of the brain.

The operation took almost a full day with the surgeons taking small brakes to drink coffee and eat microwave meals.

Bon Verweij was impressed by the relaxed attitude from the woman and wasn't even sure if he would allowed the operation on himself because of the risks that were involved.

And to give you an awesome quote from Bon Verweij: "Medical drills have all sorts of safety systems. They will turn of when there is only released a little bit of heat. Judiths (the woman) skull was very thick and hard. Error 1, error 6. I have seen all possible errors. Again and again I needed another drill. I had to go on. I have used a total of 18 drills(!!!!!!)".

It is said that the woman is in good shape now and is already at work again. Now that this operation has been successful I am guessing and hoping that these kinds of solutions will be the future for problems that cant be solved with conventional methods.

Source:

http://www.ad.nl/ad/nl/4560/Gezond/article/detail/3623468/2014/03/27/Ik-twijfelde-of-er-bij-Judith-een-luikje-in-moest.dhtml (Dutch)

http://www.businessinsider.com/worlds-first-3-d-printed-skull-2014-3