Utility and Costs Benchmarked in a New 3D Printing Service-Optimizing the Path Forward

Planning the use of endografts in the endovascular repair of complex abdominal and thoraco-abdominal aortic lesions leveraging 3D printing

INTRODUCTION

Endovascular techniques and materials have significantly expanded their application in the treatment of abdominal and thoraco-abdominal aortic lesions, allowing for the management of increasingly complex pathologies that may require cannulation of target vessels. The treatment of such diseases deserves a particular approach and dedicated materials, for which correct procedural planning is mandatory. In the last decades, the use of 3D printing technology as an assisting tool for preoperative rehearsal of complex cases has progressively widespread.

AREAS COVERED

A review was performed about the use of 3D printing technology for the planning of endovascular repair of complex abdominal and thoraco-abdominal aortic lesions. Also, our experience of planning and simulation of an elective challenging endovascular procedure for a Crawford's type II thoraco-abdominal aortic aneurysm using a Cook Zenith® T-BranchTM endograft, leveraging a 3D-printed model of the patient-specific anatomy from the aortic arch to the common femoral artery, is herein described.

EXPERT OPINION

The benefits of using 3D printing technologies as an assistive tool in planning complex endovascular repairs of abdominal and thoraco-abdominal aortic lesions have been well-documented in the literature, including their application in urgent cases. However, further research and development are necessary to overcome the current limitations of this potentially highly valuable technology.

Medical 3D Printing Using Desktop Inverted Vat Photopolymerization: Background, Clinical Applications, and Challenges

Medical 3D printing is a complex, highly interdisciplinary, and revolutionary technology that is positively transforming the care of patients. The technology is being increasingly adopted at the Point of Care (PoC) as a consequence of the strong value offered to medical practitioners. One of the key technologies within the medical 3D printing portfolio enabling this transition is desktop inverted Vat Photopolymerization (VP) owing to its accessibility, high quality, and versatility of materials. Several reports in the peer-reviewed literature have detailed the medical impact of 3D printing technologies as a whole. This review focuses on the multitude of clinical applications of desktop inverted VP 3D printing which have grown substantially in the last decade. The principles, advantages, and challenges of this technology are reviewed from a medical standpoint. This review serves as a primer for the continually growing exciting applications of desktop-inverted VP 3D printing in healthcare.

Advanced Image Segmentation and Modeling - A Review of the 2021-2022 Thematic Series

Medical 3D printing is a form of manufacturing that benefits patient care, particularly when the 3D printed part is patient-specific and either enables or facilitates an intervention for a specific condition. Most of the patient-specific medical 3D printing begins with volume based medical images of the patient. Several digital manipulations are typically performed to prescribe a final anatomic representation that is then 3D printed. Among these are image segmentation where a volume of interest such as an organ or a set of tissues is digitally extracted from the volumetric imaging data. Image segmentation requires medical expertise, training, software, and effort. The theme of image segmentation has a broad intersection with medical 3D printing. The purpose of this editorial is to highlight different points of that intersection in a recent thematic series within 3D Printing in Medicine.