3D printing now helps surgeons perform better animal surgeries
3D printing has come a long way, mostly for the good. A perfect example is how its being used in the medical field.
3D printing has come a long way, mostly for
3D printing now helps surgeons perform better animal surgeries
3D printing has come a long way, mostly for the good. A perfect example is how its being used in the medical field.
3D printing has come a long way, mostly for the good. A perfect example is how it’s being used in the medical field.
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]echnology is always evolving in all fields, including veterinary medicine. If needed, medical research can now solve some pet-related problems, but not all, which is why pet owners should always go for pet insurance – with it, they are always protected, no matter what happens.
To increase the reassurance provided by medical research in this field, know that a student from the University of Vila Real (Portugal) is developing a technology with the potential to become an important tool in veterinary medicine. This technology creates virtual models of the bone and then prints the model in three dimensions (3D printing), helping surgeons to better visualize lesions and plan complex surgeries on animals more accurately.
João Pedro Bordelo, 25, devoted his Master’s thesis, titled “Application of rapid prototyping technology in the pre-surgical study in veterinary orthopedics”, to this exact subject. Rapid prototyping is a technology used to fabricate physical objects from virtual projects:
“It is especially used for the conception of prototypes in engineering and has, in recent years, been applied experimentally to the medical fields of orthopedics and dental medicine.” [Bordelo]
The dissertation from his Master’s thesis resulted from an internship carried in veterinary medicine centers in the Paris, where he assessed the usefulness of the implementation of this technology in clinical cases of veterinary orthopedics, with complex surgical treatment.
“From the imaging exam, three-dimensional virtual prototypes of the bony structures of interest have been constructed, after which physical prototypes have been made, that helped in the pre-surgical study.” [Bordelo]
Bordelo explained that the 3D prototypes are printed in heat-resistant plastic, and those prototypes allow the surgeon to carry out a “surgical simulation, accurate and timely” with “significant decrease in surgical risk and improving post-operative welfare in animals”.
His research has already been presented in several scientific events, also leading to the creation of a startup company, NewMedTech, that provides “technologically advanced and innovative services in the field of medicine”.