‘3d printing will transform surgery, generally. No question revolution is about to happen.’
– Prof. Noel Fitzpatrick.
After doing a presentation explaining our bespoke solutions, we were lucky enough to be approached by Prof. Noel Fitzpatrick, who’d been in the audience, and invited us to do an episode on his show The Supervet in the bionic series. This presented us with the opportunity with 9-year-old Molly, who had a life-threatening tumour in her skull.
Molly’s owners decided to proceed with the complex and potentially dangerous surgery to remove the tumour. Noel enlisted our services to assist him in surgical planning to remove the tumour from Molly’s skull.
Within a short time frame, we scanned Molly, simulated which parts of her skull were going to be removed and put the data into our 3D printing software which constructed a titanium mesh implant to cover enough of the skull that the whole tumour could be removed. Noel then surgically removed the tumour and successfully implanted the plate on Molly’s skull, saving Molly’s life whilst maintaining her quality of life.
Breakdown of the collaborative process between us and Noel
Step 1
Assess Molly- this was done by Noel, after examining X-Rays, Noel determined that she had a brain tumour that would be fatal if untreated.
Step 2
Determine a course of action- Molly’s owner chose to remove the tumour and Noel asked us to work with him in creating an implant
Step 3
The bespoke solution – We scanned Molly and sent her data to our software which digitally constructed a template for an implant that would successfully cover the infected area of Molly’s skull, allowing it to be removed.
Step 4
Our 3D printer printed a titanium mesh implant precisely the same as the computer modelled it, this was then sent to Noel’s veterinary clinic.
Step 5
Noel conducted the surgery on Molly, it was planned down to the slightest detail, which facilitated it being a success and saving Molly’s life.
