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| University of Michigan researchers successfully implanted a 3-D airway splint in three infants with a life-threatening condition.--Courtesy of University of Michigan |
As 3-D printing picks up steam within the industry, U.S. researchers have harnessed the technology to develop a device that treats infants with a life-threatening airway condition and changes shape as children age.
Doctors at the University of Michigan created a 3-D printed airway splint that helps babies suffering from tracheobronchomalacia, a condition that causes tiny airways near the lungs to collapse, The Los Angeles Times reports. Researchers implanted the customized devices in three children between the ages of 3 months and 16 months as part of a pilot study, and all three infants--who were previously on full-time ventilators--rapidly recovered after being outfitted with the splint. The scientists published their findings Wednesday in Science Translational Medicine.
"Holidays are no longer spent in the hospital, the kids are no longer sedated and paralyzed," Dr. Glenn Green, an associate professor of pediatric otolaryngology at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital in Michigan and one of the senior authors on the study, told the newspaper. "This is first known cure of this disease."
To make the splints, researchers took CT scans to create a digital model of each patient's collapsed airways. Then scientists used a custom computer program to design a splint based on the child's anatomy, according to the Times story. The splints are made from bioabsorbable material that disintegrates in the body after three years and are positioned outside the collapsed airway to keep it open.
"The device is designed to have flexibility as the airways grow," said Scott Hollister, a professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Michigan, who engineered the device, as quoted by the Times. "As it grows radially it will press upon the splint and the splint will give way."
Next up, the scientists plan to launch a clinical trial for the device with 30 patients. But University of Michigan researchers are not the only ones leveraging 3-D printing to create innovative devices for pediatric patients. In August 2014, doctors at Beijing's Peking University replaced a section of cancerous vertebrae in a 12-year-old boy's spinal cord with a 3-D printed piece created from titanium powder. The implant contains small pores that allow bones to grow into the device, eliminating the need for cement and screws.
Doctors in the U.S. are also hard at work on 3-D printed devices. Last year, Johns Hopkins trauma surgeon Albert Chi created custom hands using a low-cost 3-D printer, producing a device that is more child-friendly and affordable than a typical prosthetic.
- read The Los Angeles Times story
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