2012-02-08

ksmith: (bride)
2012-02-08 09:40 pm
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Okay, maybe no one was crazy about the printed food…

…but printed bones are just wow.


An 83-year-old woman operated on last summer was the first person to receive an entire 3D-printed jaw transplant, her Belgian doctors announced Monday. The woman’s own lower jaw was riddled with infection, and given her age, and the fact that reconstructive surgery would have been a long and painful process, her doctors decided to have a new jaw specially manufactured for her. The replacement jaw is made out of titanium, assembled in thousands of layers by a 3D printer.

Rest of the story here, with a link to a paper about 3-D printing of bone substitute implants.

Mirrored from Kristine Smith.