Girl put a new skull, printed on a 3D-printer

A 22-year-old girl from the Netherlands with a chronic bone disease — due to which the thickness of her skull increased by 1.5–5 cm, which caused visual impairment and headaches — made a successful transplant of the upper part of the skull, replacing it with a plastic implant, printed on a 3D printer.



The new body is made of semi-transparent plastic.





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The operation took 23 hours. She was led by a group of surgeons at the University Medical Center Utrecht. According to representatives of the university, this is the first in the world case of transplantation of the skull, which was not rejected by the body.



Modern technology literally saved the girl's life. Her own skull was so thick that serious brain damage or death would be inevitable in the near future. To fix the problem without organ transplantation in this case was not possible.



The implant is made to order from durable plastic, whose name is not called. After the operation, the sight returned to the patient, it does not show any symptoms of the disease and is fully functional.



Experts have previously printed fragments of the skull on a 3D printer, but for the first time they managed to transplant such a large implant.







In the future, this technique is supposed to be used to replace other bones in the human body, as well as for the reconstruction of damaged skull fragments.