Doctors first transplanted ribs printed on a printer

Three-dimensional printers come to the aid of not only architects and builders, but also surgeons. In Australia, for the first time, the patient had the ribs printed on an 3D printer transplanted to a patient. The experiment turned out to be more than successful: the 54-year-old man who performed this operation left the clinic after 12 days was almost healthy.

“The patient from Spain suffered from chest sarcoma,” reports the British edition of the Mirror. – Surgeons were forced to remove some of the bones to prevent the tumor from spreading. It was necessary to put implants in their place.”

However, standard prostheses that do not have sufficient flexibility did not fit the patient, moreover, over time, they lose the desired shape. And the doctors decided to order an individual replacement. After scanning the chest, the men in the Australian Association of Scientific and Applied Research printed the desired implant on the 3D printer. The operation was successful, the surgeons admitted: the ribs fit like a glove.