3D Printing Brains? Or using brains to 3D Print?

Doctors at Boston Children’s Hospital produced an exact replica, soft plastic, 3d printed model of a child’s brain to use in a practice run before the complex surgical procedure.

It was printed with soft plastic and with a precision

3d printing technology has scientists and makers printing houses, rocket parts, blood vessels, artificial limbs and more. Now, to add to the ever-growing collection of awesome 3D-printed goodies, medics have used the famous additive manufacturing technology to produce replicas of infants’ brains in order to practice life-saving but risky surgical procedures. Having a detailed model of the brain to work with means that surgeons are no longer reliant on MRI scans and instinct to perform highly complex and precise operations.

Given the complexity of the procedure, the medics decided to first create an exact replica of Mandeville’s brain to use in a practice run.

As before, a 3D-printed model of the infant’s brain was produced from CT scans and used both before and during the surgery as a guide for the surgeons. Once again, the surgery was successful.

To prepare for the surgery, surgeons used a 3d printer to create a 3d model of the patient’s fractured pelvis to practice the procedure before the actual surgery.
http://bioprintingworld.com/3d-printed-model-assist-pelvic-fracture-surgery/