Aakash Healthcare Super Specialty Hospital treats the most complex cases in the National Capital Region (NCR) of Delhi, Dwarka. The hospital, equipped with state-of-the-art infrastructure and technology, and compassionate, world-class clinicians and staff, is well known for its leading care in Orthopedic and Joint replacement surgery To achieve the highest patient satisfaction and to provide the best healthcare service to the local community and beyond, Aakash Healthcare has set up a modern 3D printing lab on its premises known as Cure ⅽ 3D.
This lab will be used to help surgeons and clinicians create 3D models of complex clinical cases for the purpose of patient education and surgical treatment planning, and to print patient-specific jigs and medical devices that will ensure safe and accurate surgical interventions. In addition to creating high-quality models for patient education, resident teachings, and practicing complex surgeries in vitro outside the OT, the lab will go a long way to bring innovative solutions to complex and difficult clinical cases
A 12-year-old girl from Kyrgyzstan came to Aakash Healthcare, New Delhi because she suffered from a rare condition that affects approximately three children in every one hundred thousand called Progressive Scoliosis Dorsolumbar. Dorsal scoliosis affects the portion of the spine between the bottom of the neck and the top of the pelvis and causes a severe curvature. In her case, a 130 degree curve, in addition to pelvic misalignment caused by different-sized hips, was causing severe pain that left her unable to walk and was only getting worse.
The 12-year-old patient underwent a 16-hour spine surgery in two phases by the Ortho-Spine division at Aakash Healthcare. Custom-made 3D printed jigs played an important role in pre-operative planning, giving the surgeons an opportunity to practice the complicated screw insertion procedure on a 3D printed model which was a traced copy of the deformed spine. In the first stage of surgery, which lasted six hours, soft tissue adhesions were removed, and multiple osteotomies, or bone cuts, were used to increase the spine’s flexibility while correcting the alignment in the coronal plane. The second phase of the surgery involved the insertion of several titanium screws. The positioning of the screw, its size, length, and direction was performed with the help of biocompatible 3D printed jigs.
Custom-made 3D printed jigs played an important role in pre-operative planning and gave the surgeons an opportunity to practice the complicated screw insertion procedure on a 3D printed model which was a traced copy of the deformed spine. With the help of the Stratasys J5 MediJet all-in-one 3D printer and MED610 biocompatible material, the care team was able to 3D print highly-accurate, patient-specific custom jigs which were steam, Gamma and EtO sterilizable for clinical application and could make contact with tissue and bone during operative measurements.
Dr. Chandra added, “At every stage, 3D printing helped to plan the screw’s size, length, and direction. The most important feature is that it considerably lowered the risk of neurological complications and the associated problems. We could achieve almost 70 percent to 80 percent correction after surgery. Now her spine curvature has been reduced to just 30 degrees.”
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