3D Printing Helps Save Newborn With Skull Defect

Performing complex surgeries, especially those related to the brain or skull, is difficult at the best of times. And they get exponentially harder when it comes to babies and children, especially newborns. In a recent case, 3D printing was able to help save a newborn baby who needed to undergo surgery immediately after birth to repair an occipital bone defect in the skull wherein it was not properly formed. Sygnis SA, a Polish deep tech company that recently acquired Zmorph, used additive manufacturing to create a 3D printed model that was crucial in the success of the neurological operation on the newborn infant.

Though perhaps less discussed than applications like prostheses and orthoses, one of the leading ways that 3D printing is being used in the medical sector is through pre-surgical training and prep. By printing out an exact replica of the area that needs surgical intervention, in this case the skull, made from scans of the patient, surgeons are able to practice before the surgery itself, reducing mortality rates especially for complicated procedures like this one. In order to help save this particular baby girl, Sygnis was approached by Pawel Ozga, a specialist in medical imaging segmentation and a volunteer of the e-Nable Poland foundation under Dr. Kryzstof Grandys, to create the model as quickly and as detailed as possible to increase the possibility of survival. The child was diagnosed immediately after birth with the occipital bone defect which also meant that part of her brain was exposed, a dangerous condition which if untreated is fatal.

The SLA model of the newborn baby’s skull including the defect which needed to be repaired (photo credits: Sygnis SA)

Creating the 3D Printed Skull Model

The creation of the pre-operative skull model took place in February 2022. After the baby was born, she was diagnosed at the University Children’s Hospital in Krakow. The 3D printed skull was a key part in pre-surgical planning as a way to practice in a short period of time with an exact model of the baby’s skull. Indeed, Sygnis actually created two models, one using SLA and the other with SLS. They turned to the two different technologies to take advantage of both.