Last summer, Erin Mandeville was buying medicine for her five-month-old infant, Gabriel, when she became concerned, as she noticed his eyes roll back a number of times in quick succession. This was to be the first of Gabriel’s many epileptic episodes of infantile spasms that would follow. The doctors at Boston Children’s Hospital tried every route and medicine to help Gabriel, as his seizures progressed aggressively. Doctors suggested a hemispherectomy, advanced surgery in which one cerebral hemisphere – literally half of the brain – is removed or disabled. With such intrusive and vital surgery ahead, the doctors looked to 3D printing to reduce the surgical risk, and Gabriel was to be the very first infant whose brain would be replicated by a 3D printer.
Dr. Joseph Madsen, director of the epilepsy program at Boston Children’s explained that a hemispherectomy is “one of the most challenging operations in paediatric epilepsy surgery. This is a printed version that the surgeon can hold, cut, manipulate, and look for things.” Dr. Peter Weinstock, director of the Simulator Program added that the: “Surgical preparation via simulation allows surgeons to hit the ground a lot faster. We can’t be prepared for every possibility, but we can chop off a large number of complications.”
The remarkable, individualised facsimile facilitated a practice run ahead of the actual surgery. The 3D print of Gabriel’s brain was developed by the Boston Children’s Hospital Simulator Program at a precision of sixteen microns per layer in two colours, with blood vessels set in contrasting colour. Gabriel’s parents were privy to the process and anticipated complications. The surgery ran smoothly earlier this year, taking almost ten hours with all going according to plan.
The Simulator Program uses three-dimensional prints and ultra-realistic mannequins to surpass the quality of existing systems. The team of surgeons, radiologists, and engineers behind the program is currently active in the research process of data accumulation to empirically validate implications for surgery and anaesthetic times plus patient safety.
Gabriel’s mother Mandeville said: “He was missing huge milestones in his childhood. I didn’t know how invasive it would be, but, if it was going to make him have a better life, it was an easy choice to make.”
