The news of a medical team who used 3D scanning technology to save a baby born with a part of the skull open was announced late.



On the 15th local time, foreign media such as Interresting Engineering, an American IT specialized media, reported that Polish medical staff saved the life of a child born with a skull deformity through surgery using 3D scanning.



Earlier this year, a child was born in Zesup, Poland, with a poorly formed back of the head, with a fifth of its skull open.



It was not possible to diagnose the malformation by testing during pregnancy, and the condition of the child that was discovered only after birth was a situation in which the brain was exposed to the outside, so a fatal infection was inevitable.

At that time, the medical staff had only four days to save the child.



The medical staff needed a physical model the same size as the child's skull for safe and fast surgery, and they sent CT and MRI images to a local 3D printing company and asked for visualization.


Enlarging an image

Enlarging an image


The medical team, who received the completed skull model, which took 26 hours in total, immediately made a detailed surgical plan, practiced the procedures, and then proceeded with the operation.



The medical staff performed a two-hour operation to reconstruct the soft tissues of the head using skin, muscle and fat from different parts of the baby's body, and the results were successful.


Enlarging an image


Dr. Łukasz Krakowczyk, who performed the operation, said in an interview with the media, "It was the most difficult operation in my 20 years as a doctor. The loss of about a fifth of the skull surface was very fatal."



He added, "Through 3D printing technology, we were able to accurately determine the extent of bone loss and significantly shortened the operation time."



The child was discharged on February 28th in good health, but the child's bones are constantly growing, so the medical staff said that they plan to perform additional surgery in the future to keep up with the changes.



(Photo = 'SYGNIS' official website, Instagram, Lucas Krakowski's Facebook)