3D printing is a technology that gives the possibility to many companies and companies to facilitate their work. Many of them have built products in a few days and saving a lot of money thanks to this technology. Medicine has also benefited from 3D printing, creating a device capable of keeping patients with acute liver failure alive.
3D printing technology is very affordable, as you can easily have a 3D printer at home. There are many stores in which they are sold and that allow us to create almost what we want.
An implant that can save lives
The creators of this device are scientists from the Catholic University of Korea and the Asan Medical Center. It is an implant that stabilizes patients suffering from acute liver failure, a disease that causes the liver to gradually lose its functions.
While the patient is stabilized, vital golden time is gained to find a liver donor and perform a transplant to save the life of the person suffering from the disease. Inside the implant there is a substance that is a drug that helps to treat the liver.
Liver transplants are the only solution for this very serious disease and sometimes there are no donors available, so saving time thanks to this 3D printed implant is very important.
It is also a very complex operation , since the liver is a delicate organ. Because of this, scientists have always been looking for alternatives to heal tissue damaged by this disease.
The advantages of 3D printing
3D printing technology was used to create a flexible device that would also create “connections” through which the drugs needed to repair damaged tissues and improve the health of the patient could circulate.
To test this device, more than 30 mice were tested before. Only one died but the rest had normal symptoms and even enlarged the liver. Therefore, the scientists determined that the device not only keeps patients alive, but also helps organs to regrow again.
However, the Korean team assures that it is made of a material that forces it to be removed by an operation when it is no longer necessary, so the idea is that in the future this implant is made with another type of material that does not no surgery needed.
Thus, it is expected that in the future some type of biodegradable device more beneficial to the human body will be made. This shows that 3D printing can be implemented as a form of cure in medicine.