3D Printing Analysis by Powder Bed Printer (PBP) of a Thoracic Aorta Under Simufact Additive

Introduction

Rapid prototyping was introduced in the early 1980s and applied by the manufacturing industry to design components for various products including automotive, maritime and aerospace (Laschinger et al., 1998; Dekker DL et al., 1974). For these industrial applications, rapid prototyping has been utilized to assess the ease of future product assembly and evaluate the feasibility of developing newly designed products prior to mass production (Olivieri L, 2013). In medicine, 3D printing from radiological images to replicate anatomical structures was initially used in orthopedic and plastic surgery (Laschinger et al., 1998; Estevez ME, 2010). The software was later adapted to accommodate CT and CMR datasets for rapid prototyping of cardiovascular structures. More recently, high-resolution cardiac imaging has ushered in an era where rapid prototyping or 3D printing of congenital heart disease is more feasible (Greil GF, 2007). 3D printed cardiac models can enhance the management of patients by improving interventional and surgical planning and perhaps lead to individualized device deployment targeting specific cardiac defects (Hoyek et al., 2009; Guillot A, 2007). Typically, high-resolution cross-sectional CT and CMR are used as the source datasets to derive whole heart 3D printed models (Jacobs S, 2008; Olivieri L, 2014). 3D printing derived from 3D echocardiographic imaging is also feasible and accurately reflects cardiac morphology, albeit focusing on one part of the anatomy (Samuel BP, 2015; Olivieri LJ, 2014). The integration of multiple imaging modalities for hybrid 3D printing is an additional technique which can be used when one modality is insufficient to give a complete picture of the pathology (Kurup HKN, 2015; Gosnell J, 2016). 3D printed models have been extremely appealing especially for preoperative planning of a variety of cases. Models have been printed on one hand to help doctors fully understand anatomical details and spatial relationship between structures, therefore contributing to improved knowledge and training for certain treatments (Farooqi KM, 2015; Guillot A, 2007), and on the other to more effective communication with patients and their families (Hoyek et al., 2009).