Department of Surgery, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN; Visible Heart Laboratories, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.
Institute for Engineering in Medicine University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.
Surgery. 2020 Feb;167(2):259-263. doi: 10.1016/j.surg.2018.11.022. Epub 2019 Feb 18.
Three-dimensional printing is an additive manufacturing method that builds objects from digitally generated computational models. Core technologies behind three-dimensional printing are evolving rapidly with major advances in materials, resolution, and speed that enable greater realism and higher accuracy. These improvements have led to novel applications of these processes in the medical field.
The process of going from a medical image data set (computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasound) to a physical three-dimensional print includes several steps that are described. Medical images originate from Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine files or data sets, the current standard for storing and transmitting medical images. Via Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine manipulation software packages, a segmentation process, and manual intervention by an expert user, three-dimensional digital and printed models can be constructed in great detail.
Cardiovascular medicine is one of the fastest growing applications for medical three-dimensional printing. The technology is more frequently being used for patient and clinician education, preprocedural planning, and medical device design and prototyping. We report on three case studies, describing how our three-dimensional printing has contributed to the care of cardiac patients at the University of Minnesota.
Medical applications of computational three-dimensional modeling and printing are already extensive and growing rapidly and are routinely used for visualizing complex anatomies from patient imaging files to plan surgeries and create surgical simulators. Studies are needed to determine whether three-dimensional printed models are cost effective and can consistently improve clinical outcomes before they become part of routine clinical practice.
三维打印是一种从数字生成的计算模型构建物体的增材制造方法。三维打印的核心技术发展迅速，材料、分辨率和速度都取得了重大进展，从而实现了更高的逼真度和更高的精度。这些改进促使这些工艺在医学领域得到了新的应用。
从医学图像数据集（计算机断层扫描、磁共振成像、超声）到物理三维打印的过程包括几个步骤，这些步骤将被描述。医学图像源于数字成像和通信在医学文件或数据集，这是存储和传输医学图像的当前标准。通过数字成像和通信在医学操纵软件包中，通过专家用户的分割过程和手动干预，可以构建非常详细的三维数字和打印模型。
心血管医学是医学三维打印增长最快的应用之一。该技术越来越多地用于患者和临床医生的教育、术前规划以及医疗设备的设计和原型制作。我们报告了三个案例研究，描述了我们的三维打印如何为明尼苏达大学的心脏患者护理做出贡献。
计算三维建模和打印的医学应用已经非常广泛，并在迅速发展，并且通常用于从患者成像文件中可视化复杂解剖结构，以规划手术和创建手术模拟器。在成为常规临床实践的一部分之前，需要进行研究以确定三维打印模型是否具有成本效益，并且是否能够始终如一地改善临床结果。
