{"id":22770,"date":"2016-02-25T17:47:37","date_gmt":"2016-02-26T01:47:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2016\/02\/doctors-implant-3d-printed-vertebrae-in-worlds-first-surgery"},"modified":"2017-04-24T22:06:58","modified_gmt":"2017-04-25T05:06:58","slug":"doctors-implant-3d-printed-vertebrae-in-worlds-first-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2016\/02\/doctors-implant-3d-printed-vertebrae-in-worlds-first-surgery","title":{"rendered":"Doctors implant 3D-printed vertebrae in \u2018world\u2019s first\u2019 surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Just Amazing<\/p>\n

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Ralph Mobbs, a neurosurgeon at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney, made medical history in late 2015 when he successfully replaced two vertebrae<\/a> with custom made prosthesis<\/a>. The patient, in his 60s, suffered from Chordoma, a particularly nasty form of cancer that had formed on his top two vertebrae and threatened to cinch off his spinal cord as it grew. That would have left him a quadriplegic. Complicating matters, those top two vertebrae are what allow you to turn and tilt your head, so it\u2019s not like doctors can easily fashion a replacement out of bone grafted from another part of the patient\u2019s body. They have to fit perfectly and that\u2019s where the 3D printers come in.<\/p>\n

Mobbs worked with Anatomics, an Australian medical device manufacturer, to craft perfect replicas of the patient\u2019s top two vertebrae out of titanium. This is the first time that these two particular neck bones have been printed and installed. \u201cTo be able to get the printed implant that you know will fit perfectly because you\u2019ve already done the operation on a model \u2026 It was just a pure delight,\u201d Mobbs told Mashable Australia<\/em><\/a>. \u201cIt was as if someone had switched on a light and said \u2018crikey, if this isn\u2019t the future, well then I don\u2019t know what is\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The surgery itself was no small feat. The 15-hour procedure is fraught with peril as the medical team operates within inches of the top of the spinal cord as well as the brainstem and numerous major arteries. \u201cThe surgery that we\u2019re doing today is a particularly complicated and long and difficult surgery. It involves exposure at the top of the neck where the neck and the head meets,\u201d Mobbs told ABC 7.30<\/em><\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s essentially disattaching the patient\u2019s head from his neck and taking the tumour out and reattaching his head back onto his neck.\u201d Thankfully, the surgery was a success. Mobbs was able to remove the tumor and implant the prosthetic.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just Amazing Ralph Mobbs, a neurosurgeon at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney, made medical history in late 2015 when he successfully replaced two vertebrae with custom made prosthesis. The patient, in his 60s, suffered from Chordoma, a particularly nasty form of cancer that had formed on his top two vertebrae and threatened to [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":395,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1489,11,1499,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-3d-printing","category-biotech-medical","category-cyborgs","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/395"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22770"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43510,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22770\/revisions\/43510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}