Professor Philip Breedon, with NTU’s Design for Health and Wellbeing Group, said, “Consultants undertaking delicate and precise procedures like spinal surgery need as much knowledge and experience as possible as part of their surgical training before going into live operations.”
“One error can lead to catastrophic, life-changing consequences for a patient, so it’s imperative that surgeons can prepare themselves thoroughly.”
“This research will enable clinicians to experience how performing spinal surgery feels both physically and mentally, but in a safe training environment.”
The goal of the project is to help surgeons in training know how it really feels to drill into vertebrae, or partly remove it, before working on actual human patients in live operations. The 3D printed replica vertebrae models act, and feel, like actual bone tissue, with hard outer layers and a softer center. Thanks to a powder 3D printing technique, the models can mimic the porosity of real bone.
NTU is leading the project, which is taking place in collaboration with a visiting NTU professor, consultant spinal surgeon Professor Bronek Boszczyk, of Nottingham University Hospitals Trust.
“This is an innovative project which has resulted in the development of spinal models which look, feel and behave like real bone,” said Professor Boszczyk. “These models will enable surgeons to practice very delicate procedures in a training environment which will give clinicians increased confidence before they undertake real spinal operations.”
To get accurate bone representations from people with conditions like scoliosis, individual models can also be created from CT scan data.
Currently, the models are being created for surgeons who will be performing procedures such as laminectomies, where they may have to remove bone tissue to relieve a patient’s trapped nerves. But the next stage of the project will be to 3D print replica bones with varying levels of strength, so surgeons will be able to get the feel for operating on people with conditions like osteoporosis.
Joseph Meeks, an NTU postgraduate student from Yorkshire, developed the 3D printed bone technology to fulfill part of his MSc in Medical Product Design; until today, his design work was included in a public exhibition for NTU’s Postgraduate Design Exhibition 2017.
We often see 3D technology used to train surgeons, whether it’s through realistic 3D printed models or virtual reality simulations. With any luck, NTU’s 3D printed vertebrae models will hit the classroom sometime in the next few years to train the next generation of surgeons.“Until a surgeon goes into a live operation, he or she has very little knowledge of how it feels to perform spinal surgery,” Meeks said. “This research provides consultants with a realistic representation of spinal surgery which allows them to learn in a safe and calm environment. By better communicating these experiences, we can improve the skills of surgeons in the classroom and help enhance operative outcomes for patients in real life.”
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[Source: NTU]