on the horizon
By Tess Wells
A Change of Heart From plastic to polymers, 3-D printed hearts are becoming more realistic
3-D
printing technology is no longer novel and has become commonly used in a wide range of industries in recent years. The technology made its debut in the 1980s and appeared on the market in the ’90s, according to PCMag. Though these machines have been used for years to create everything from art to furniture, especially as the printers become more accessible to the public, their use in the medical field continues to advance, particularly in the realm of cardiovascular medicine.
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It’s not uncommon to see 3-D printers used to build small figurines or, in the last year, straps to save the ears from the constant rubbing of surgical mask strings. More incredible, however, is that 3-D printers are working to create model human hearts. But this technology isn’t as new as one might think. Copies of human hearts have been made using 3D printers for years, as this tool can be useful when trying to determine how best to perform heart surgery on a given patient. Models can be made using MRI scans of a patient’s heart, and
doctors can use these copies to get a better look at how to approach a procedure beforehand, according to an article in New Atlas. In 2014, for instance, the J.B. Speed School of Engineering at the University of Louisville produced a 3-D-printed model of a child’s heart, enabling surgeons to repair the actual heart defect in just one operation. These models have historically been made out of rubber or hard plastic, and though this allows doctors to plan out procedures before they enter the operatwww.healthynewalbanymagazine.com
