Sygnis
3D printing with SLS technology
Neonatal surgery differs dramatically from adult surgery. Pediatric surgery requires greater delicacy, precision and faster response, all due to the still forming human body. Often surgery is required immediately after the child has been born, when every minute counts.
Sygnis is taking advantage of the capabilities of 3D printing to help newborns. In February 2022, a pre-operative skull model of a newborn baby was printed by the company, after being approached by Pawel Ozga, a medical imaging segmentation specialist.
The child in question, a girl, was due to be born at any moment, and did not have a formed occipital bone, leaving the brain tissue partially exposed. As soon as she was born, she was taken to the University Children’s Hospital of Krakow. At the same time, a centre was being sought that would provide the specialised treatment needed for the defect.
The person to take on the task was Professor Lukasz Krakowczyk of the Oncology Center in Gliwice. A physical model of the child’s skull on a 1:1 scale was created in preparation for the op.
Helping to prepare the virtual model of the skull was the e-Nable Poland Foundation, which has long co-operated with the Children’s University Hospital in Krakow to solve such problems.
Pawel Ozga was in charge of medical imaging segmentation and the process of preparing the 3D model necessary for printing. Once the diagnosis was complete, the child was transported to the Upper Silesian Children’s Health Center in Katowice for the surgery.
Sygnis had received the call for help only 96 hours prior to the operation. The same day, Sygnis engineers began 3D printing the skull in two different technologies. One with SLS technology, using a Sinterit Lisa Pro 3D printer with PA12 powder, which took 24 hours, and the other using SLA technology on a FlashForge Foto 8.9s 3D printer with white standard resin, which took eight hours.
Sygnis
3D printing with SLA technology
The use of the resin technology on the FlashForge was for obtaining an overview print quickly for evaluation before printing with SLS technology. The FlashForge Foto uses a parallel UV light source a 4K monochrome LCD matrix.
The accuracy of the 0.05mm layer print and the eight-hour process allowed the team to quickly check the model to confirm it was an accurate representation of the imaging.
To produce a model for pre-operative surgical exercises, SLS technology was used. The powder technology allows for 3D printing without the use of support structures, allowing for the reproduction of geometrically complex bone structures.
Polyamide was used as it is a mechanically strong material that would not be damaged by contact with surgical instruments during pre-operative testing.The operation was successfully completed on February 28 and the patient was discharged from the hospital. The 3D printouts went to the archive of the surgical case and are parts of the doctor’s work and practise in similar cases.
Professor Krakowczyk, MD said: “The imaging studies were useful for determining the skull bone defect. However, they did not perfectly coincide with the skin defect, which is why printing the model was so important.”
Prof. Krakowczyk added: “3D printing will also be essential at the stage of reconstruction of the skull bone defect, when the need for perfect alignment and planning of the bone reconstruction will occur.”
Several treatments will be required for the girl in the future, as the bones of her skull are evolving and undergoing constant changes.
A few months after the successful work with the Katowice hospital, Sygnis produced another pre-operative model. This time of a young child’s spine. The child had a meningo-spinal hernia and scoliosis.
In this case, only SLS technology was used due to the detail and strength of the material. If resin printing had been used in this case, with supports removed one by one, the expected effect of precisely visualising all pathological changes could have been disrupted.
Sygnis recently acquired Polish 3D printer manufacturer ZMorph and launched the Sygnis Group.
