3D Printed Prosthetic Beak Saves Bird’s Life

Additive manufacturing has already proven to be a valuable asset to the medical department on countless occasions. In some cases, its use can even help to save lives, like in the recent case of Crescent, a Great Indian Hornbill from ZooTampa in Florida, shows. Doctors using Formlabs’ BioMed White Resin were able to create a 3D printed prosthetic beak in order to save the bird from a fatal cancer.

The story starts when caretakers at the Tampa Zoo first noticed a lesion on Crescents casque, which is the distinctive helmet-like portion on the upper beak. It was later discovered that the 25 year old bird had developed what veterinarians believed to be a squamous cell carcinoma. This is a common skin cancer also found on humans. While animals from this endangered species have a predisposition to this particular disease, a diagnosis is most of the time fatal. The veterinarians soon came to the conclusion that the only way to save her life was to get rid of the infected section of the beak entirely. By removing that area of the casque however, the then missing part would be leaving a big hole, resulting in her sinuses staying exposed.

The squamous cell carcinoma often ends fatal (photo credits: Formlabs)

In an effort to save Crescent, the veterinarians of ZooTampa turned to the University of South Florida (USF) medical team for help. Dr. Summer Decker, Director of 3D Clinical Applications at USF’s Radiology Department came up with the idea of 3D printing a prosthesis of the missing part. Already having used 3D printing for human prosthetics, Dr. Decker was convinced it would have the same positive outcome if used on the oversized bird.