A 3D-printed model of the blood vessels inside a woman’s brain has helped surgeons practise life-saving surgery.
The surgeons needed to operate to correct a weakness, or aneurysm, in a blood vessel inside the patient’s head.
Scans of the aneurysm revealed that the usual approach surgeons would take to fix it would not have worked.
3D printing is increasingly finding a role in medicine to either help doctors prepare before carrying out procedures or to make prosthetics.
After suffering vision problems and recurrent headaches, New York state resident Theresa Flint was diagnosed with an aneurysm that, if left untreated, would have proved fatal.
An aneurysm is a bulging blood vessel caused by a weakness in an artery wall that risks rupturing.
The usual way to treat such problems is to implant a metallic basket that strengthens the artery wall, said Dr Adnan Siddiqui, chief medical officer at the Jacobs Institute in Buffalo, New York, who directed the treatment.