3D Printed Model could treat Heart Patients in Better Way

A new study found that an experimental 3D printed model of the heart could assist doctors in treating patients born with complicated heart disorders. The model could be a better alternative to treat heart patients, according to scientists.

Director of the Congenital Heart Disease MRI Programme at the University of Illinois, Matthew Bramlet, said, "With 3D printing, surgeons can make better decisions before they go into the operating room. The more prepared they are, the better decisions they make, and the fewer surprises that they encounter".

As per researchers of the study, they have created 3D heart models of a lady in her 20s, a three-year-old boy and a nine-month-old girl. All of them had complex heart disease. The new model could be helpful in treating them, stated the researchers.

The researchers said that before repairing severe heart abnormalities in all three heart patients, they had studied the heart models and some traditional images. Before this, heart surgeons used 2D images that were taken through X-ray, ultrasound and MRI. They used those images while planning for surgery.

According to the researchers, the 2D images that are currently used by surgeons are not capable of showing complex structural complications in the heart's chambers that occur when an ailment is present at the time of birth.

The children with heart disease often go through simple palliative surgery immediately after their birth, but when they grow to about 9 months old, the surgeons are forced to do complex surgeries. It becomes difficult for surgeons to operate them as even when they are bigger, but their hearts still remain tiny.

It becomes tricky to interpret their anatomy based solely on imaging. In that case, a 3D printed model could be a great help. The model improves understandings of the heart disease.