Smart Molding International 4-2022

42 smart_molding international 4/2022 additive manufacturing B CN3D’s 3D printing technology has been integrated into the pediatric maxillofacial surgery team at the SJD Barcelona Children’s Hospital (SJD) to successfully perform a complicated operation to resect a ma- lignant tumor in an 11-year-old boy. In this case, the medical team led by Dr. Josep Rubio, head of the maxillofacial surgery unit at SJD Barcelona Children’s Hospital, decided to carry out preop- erative planning and simulation using BCN3D’s 3D printed technology and three-dimensional anatomical models of the parts of the patient’s skull, given the complexity of the operation. The planning consisted of the 3D design of the anatomy of the limits of the resection to be performed in the subsequent intervention, creating an image of the skull and the patient’s child’s tumor, which was then 3D printed in the hospital’s 3D printing laboratory. The medical team and the radiologists managed to print both pieces thanks to BCN3D’s 3D printing technology – specifically the W27 3D printer from the Epsilon series – which, with its double extruder head and the materials used (ABS), provides the necessary realism for the doctors to plan the actual surgical intervention based on the exact resection of the entirety of the child’s eye tumor, a facial osteosarcoma. “The goal of the surgery was to remove a child’s tumor located in his cheekbone and to remove the tumor with safe margins. To do this we used 3D planning to delimit the limits of the resection. Nowadays, 3D planning at the SJD Barcelona Children’s Hospital is standard practice in maxillofacial surgery, especially in very complex cases such as the one we dealt with in this child. We had to create cutting and positioning guides to transfer the virtual planning from the computer to the operating theatre. This has allowed us to • The maxillofacial surgery and oncology team at SJD Barcelona Children’s Hospital, in this case, led by Dr. Josep Rubio, performs a 3D planning and simulation of the resection of a tumor in a young patient’s cheekbone. • The creation of the two three-dimensional pieces of the patient’s skull and tumor has been essential for the doctors to achieve the extraction with maximum precision. BCN3D provided its 3D printing technology to successfully plan the removal of a big tumor Photos source: BCN3D