London: In a world first, surgeons in the Netherlands have successfully replaced the complete skull of a 22-year-old woman with a 3D-printed, tailor-made plastic skull.
The 23-hour surgery likely saved the life of the woman , who suffers from a condition that thickens the bone structure, particularly that of the skull.
The thickening of the skull put the woman's brain under increasing pressure.
“She slowly lost her vision and started to suffer from motor coordination impairment. It was only a matter of time before other essential brain functions would have been impaired and she would have died,” said brain surgeon Dr Bon Verweij of the University Medical Centre (UMC) Utrecht, Netherlands.
“So intensive surgery was inevitable, but until now there was no effective treatment for such patients,” said Dr Verweij who performed the operation together with orthodontic surgeon Dr Marvick Muradin.
Before performing the procedure, Dr Verweij gained extensive experie-nce with reconstructions and the 3D printing of partial skull implants. In certain cases, for example when the brain swells up after an accident, often part of the skull is temporarily removed to reduce the pressure on the brain.
