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TIME is critical when a patient is undergoing surgery; the longer the patient's internal tissue is exposed, the greater the risk. This concern is on the minds of maxillofacial surgeons at a teaching hospital in Belgium, who often need to reconstruct bones in a patient’s skull, such as a jaw ravaged by cancer or an eye socket crushed in a car accident.
Cliniques universitaires saint Luc, Universite catholique de Louvain (UCL) in Belgium, is using Mcor Technologies’ Selective Deposition Lamination (SDL) paper-based 3D printing technology to create accurate physical models of patients' bone structures, serving as surgical guides for metal implants. This has resulted in a reduction in surgery times by an hour or more, savings of 20,000 € annually and an improvement in patient outcomes.
Mcor Technologies (Dunleer, Ireland) is an innovative manufacturer of the world's most affordable, full-color and eco-friendly 3D printers. They are the only 3D printers to use ordinary business letter and A4 paper as the build material, a choice that renders durable, stable and tactile models. Established in 2004 with a talented team of specialists in the area of 3D printing, software and CAD/CAM, Mcor’s vision is to make 3D printing more accessible to everyone. The company operates internationally from offices in Ireland, the UK and US.
The surgeons employ paper 3D printing technology from Mcor Technologies to recoup hours from traditional surgical procedures. Working from the digitally scanned contours of patients' bones, doctors push a button to create full-size 3D physical models they can use as surgical guides.
Since the model is a facsimile of the patient's actual physiology, surgeons can use it to precisely shape metal inserts that fit along a patient's residual bone. The insert might be a plate that supports a damaged mandible or a titanium mesh for reconstructing a damaged eye socket. Without 3D physical models to work from, surgeons would be forced to rely on time-consuming trial and error to shape the metal implants and risk potential tissue damage.
"With each procedure, we easily win an hour in the operating room, and that's a major benefit for the patient," says Prof. Raphael Olszewski, a surgeon and head of the university's oral and maxillofacial surgery research lab (OMFS Lab, UCL). "We open the patient up, slide in the device, check the fit and start the patient's recovery."
