Dr. Adnan Sheikh holds an exact replica of a patient\u2019s pelvis that has one hip eaten away by cancer. It was made with a 3D printer.<\/p>\n
The model, based on the patient\u2019s CT scan, was critical to surgeons planning the complex hip replacement surgery. Seeing the extent of the damage done by the disease gave them a clear idea of how to operate. Otherwise, doctors wouldn\u2019t have had this level of detail before the surgery.<\/p>\n
\u201c3D printing is revolutionizing the way we do medicine at The Ottawa Hospital,\u201d said Dr. Adnan Sheikh, medical director for the hospital\u2019s 3D printing program.<\/p>\n
Revolutionizing medicine is no exaggeration. A 3D printer uses an \u2018additive process\u2019 successively laying thin layers of material on top of each other to create a three dimensional, solid object.<\/p>\n
Thanks to a donor\u2019s generosity, The Ottawa Hospital acquired a 3D printer that uses acrylics and plastics to print such things as the patient\u2019s damaged pelvis.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to print models for surgical planning and for education,\u201d said Dr. Frank Rybicki, Chief of Medical Imaging at The Ottawa Hospital. \u201cIf somebody has cancer, we can print the actual organ to show them and explain a treatment plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knowing ahead of time exactly how to operate reduces the operating time, often by hours, resulting in significant cost savings. Saving surgery times also decreases wait times, which allows more patients to be treated.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means we can provide care in ways that we were not able to do before,\u201d said Dr. Rybicki.<\/p>\n
The Ottawa Hospital is the first hospital in Canada to have an integrated medical 3D printing program for surgical planning, education, and research. It will have general uses for cancer patients, fracture patients, orthopaedic and vascular patients, as well as for skull-based tumours. It also will open up new avenues for research.<\/p>\n
3D printing offers incredible innovation that will help patients today and into the future. Within the next few years, the hospital will expand its program to include 3D printers capable of printing human tissue, bones and organs to implant into patients.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dr. Adnan Sheikh holds an exact replica of a patient\u2019s pelvis that has one hip eaten away by cancer. It was made with a 3D printer. The model, based on the patient\u2019s CT scan, was critical to surgeons planning the complex hip replacement surgery. Seeing the extent of the damage done by the disease gave […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":22039,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}