The 3D-printed splint that helped save a baby’s life

By David Nield March 23, 2014

3d printed splint helped save babys life

The technology is still relatively new, but 3D printing is already changing lives and industries — NPR reports on the case of Garrett Peterson, a 16 month-old baby with a defective windpipe condition called tracheomalacia. Doctors have fitted a 3D-printed splint into Garrett’s windpipe to enable him to keep breathing properly until his body grows stronger.

“It’s like a protective shield that goes on the outside of the windpipe,” said Dr Glenn Green from the University of Michigan, one of the doctors who worked on the device. “It allows the windpipe to be tacked to the inside of that shell to open it up directly.” Dr Green and biomedical engineer Dr Scott Hollister had to get an emergency waiver from the Food and Drug Administration in order to fit the splint, as it hasn’t yet received official approval.

Related Videos

“His condition was critical,” explains Dr Green. “It was urgent and things needed to be done quickly. It was highly questionable whether he would survive and how long he would survive.”

Dr Green and Dr Hollister took a CT scan of Garrett’s windpipe in order to enable them to make a 3D replica of it; they then used the University’s 3D printing hardware to design a tailor-made splint to fit. Two splints were fitted to Garrett’s windpipe in an operation that lasted eight hours — by the time that surgery started, one of the baby’s lungs had turned white.

In the weeks since the operation, Garrett has been breathing more easily and growing in strength. “He has been doing so good,” says mom Natalie Peterson. “He’s been smiling, and it’s crazy to be able to see him get really upset and not change colors.” The windpipe will eventually dissolve naturally once Garrett’s windpipe gets strong enough to work naturally.

Dr Green is hoping to expand the use of this 3D printing technology, but transporting sick children is expensive and insurance companies remain unconvinced. Drs Green and Hollister recently answered a Reddit AMA in which they went into more depth about the procedure, and long-time Digital Trends readers might remember that this isn’t the first time the pair have used this kind of technology to help save lives.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Emerging Tech

Inside the quest to 3D print a perfectly palatable steak

3D printed steak

As people grow more concerned about the impacts of the meat industry both on the environment and the animals involved, fake meats have experienced a boom in popularity. Products like Beyond Burger and Impossible Pork, for example, have captured the attention of vegans and vegetarians across the globe for their astonishingly meat-like tastes and textures. But while ground meat substitutes have made big strides in recent years, plant based versions of more choice cuts aren’t yet on the menu. Whole cuts of meat are the next milestone for the fake meat business, and companies around the world are sprinting to replicate the most iconic cut of all: Steak.

And they’re doing it through 3D printing.
Steak: Nature’s meaty masterpiece
Even the tastiest ground beef arrives in your kitchen as a mass of reddish flesh pressed into plastic or wax paper. Next to that, a good steak is a Michelangelo fresco, with layers of muscle fiber and fat.

Deals

Father’s Day Gift Idea: These cheap 3D printers are on sale for less than $300

best 3d printer deals featured image

3D printing has become a lot more accessible these days than it had been in the past. Back then, you'd have to shell out as much as $1,000 for one. Today, however, there are plenty of budget 3D printers out that cost less than $300, such as the Monoprice Mini Delta, Longer Orange 10, and Comgrow Creality Ender 3. These are fantastic gifts for dad and if you order today they'll surely arrive before Father's Day.
Monoprice Mini Delta -- $160, was $176

The incredible thing about the Monoprice Delta Mini, aside from the fact that it's one of the cheapest 3D printers on the market, is that it boasts a range of advanced features you typically won't find in a $160 3D printer. It has a sturdy, all-metal frame, a heated build plate that helps prevent warping, automatic bed leveling functionality, a maximum resolution of 50 microns, a full-color LCD screen, Wi-Fi connectivity, and compatibility with a wide range of materials. For something that costs less than a FitBit, all that stuff baked-in is pretty impressive. That's not to say the Monoprice Mini Delta is all that great. For starters, it's called Mini because its printing area is only 110 millimeters in diameter (4.3 inches), and 120 millimeters tall (4.7 inches), which definitely puts a limit on what objects you can print.

Health & Fitness

Sweat-analyzing patch could help spot biomarkers linked to COVID-19

Smart patch arm 1

When you think about wearable tech, chances are that your mind goes to a device like the Apple Watch long before it does the Band-Aid-style smart patch developed by Epicore Biosystems. But the company, which spun out of Northwestern University’s Querrey Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics and professor John A. Rogers’ laboratory, has been hard at work creating sweat-sensing smart patches which could be used to help measure sweat components in athletes and a variety of other individuals -- and could even have potential application for medical use in helping keep tabs on crucial biomarkers for patients suffering from COVID-19.

“We have [created] two versions of the wearable sensor patch in development suitable across different applications,” Roozbeh Ghaffari, Epicore’s CEO and co-founder, told Digital Trends. “One is a color-changing wearable microfluidics patch used by athletes. The other is a Bluetooth-enabled patch that tracks the sweat biomarkers of workers in construction, on oil rigs, and in factories, plus other physically intense occupations -- for the ‘industrial athletes.'"