The infants suffered from a terminal disease known as Tracheobronchomalacia. This is a rare condition in which weakness of the walls of the windpipe causes the airway to narrow or collapse. Therefore it causes breathing problems, many patients experience a harsh collection of other side effects for example heat attacks or the inability to absorb food properly.
Many children outgrow the condition by the age of two or three after newly developed tissue has reinforced the floppy airways but many children die before they have a chance to become strong enough. This was unfortunately outcome for the 3 young boys who had spent extended periods in intensive care.
Back in 2012 the first patient was Kaiba Gionfriddo, senior study author Glenn Green and biomedical engineering professor Scott Holister used 3D printing to create tailored stents for each individual patient as shown above in the picture. These were designed from the CT scan which provided details of the exact size and shape of their trachea. Then those hollow stents were stitched by surgeons on the outside of the trachea so that the weak airway remains open.
The implants were designed to be flexible enough to allow movement. The material they used was a cheap and harmless plastic called Polycaprolactone that's slowly breaks down over 3 or 4 years upon exposure to bodily fluids which is then absorbed by the body.
Thankfully the surgery was a success in all 3 boys and has significantly improvement in their lives. The children are now 17 months and 3 years old they no longer have life-threatening airway disease and could go home.
“We were pleased to find that all of our cases so far have proven to improve these patients’ lives,” Green said in a statement. “The potential of 3D-printed medical devices to improve outcomes for patients is clear, but we need more data to implement this procedure in medical practice.”
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