Experimental operation has helped the 27-year-old Australian to save the leg. Reuben Lighter suffered from a serious form of osteomyelitis and he was threatened with amputation, but the doctors encouraged him to try a new method, previously tested only on animals. As a result, surgeons implanted him in the leg frame of the tibia, printed on a 3D printer.
It was first created three-dimensional model of the tibia of the patient, then she was sent to Singapore, where the prosthesis is made of biocompatible polymer. For the successful completion of implantation the doctors had to carry out five operations. In the first of them from the tissues drained the pus, and the next four were needed for successful completion of the operation, just set the 3D prosthesis in place of bone will not work.
New bone covered the blood vessels and tissues taken from the patient’s tibia and left knee — now they are starting to grow around the new bones. Doctors believe that over time, the tissue will be able to recreate new bone, but it will take quite some time — a year and a half. While Reuben you can’t go around alarming pace.
This is not the first case of replacement of the bone of the patient on a 3D prosthesis. Previously in China conducted an operation, during which the patient was replaced a few cervical vertebrae prostheses created with 3D printer.
Printed on a 3D printer tibia implanted in the patient
Vyacheslav Larionov