3-D Printing Models Chest Cavity for Unusual Lung Transplant
July 22, 2014 | Terry Sharrer
In an astonishingly complicated procedure, surgeons at Kyoto University Hospital used a 3-D printer to model the chest cavity of a woman who would receive the lower lobe of her husband’s right lung attached to her resected left lung. In the process, the bronchi and blood vessels were reversed, so the transplanted lobe had to be reversed. The model allowed surgeons to practice fitting the donor’s tissue before the actual operation took place. A successful outcome followed for both the husband and wife. MORE WITH VIDEO
Image Credit: Kyoto University Hospital and www.3ders.org