NAPLES, Fla. — A Naples woman faced a life-threatening situation after a massive heart attack left her with two holes in her heart, but doctors at NCH Rooney Heart Institute used 3D printing technology to perform a life-saving surgery.
When the woman arrived at the hospital, her condition was critical, with a major heart attack leaving her with a slim chance of survival. Dr. Robert Cubeddu, an interventional cardiologist and president of Rooney Heart Institute, said, “These two complications are typically life-threatening with a risk of dying of over 90 to 95%.”
Doctors turned to a new technology recently added to the institute: 3D printers that use resin to create exact replicas of patients’ hearts. Dr. Dee Dee Wang, who specializes in cardiac imaging at NCH, explained, “This is our 3D printer in-house.” She added, “It builds a whole layer upon layer upon layer of the actual anatomy. So, very much similar to the CT scan that we obtained of the patient beforehand, we basically cut the body into like 7,000 small layers, and each layer is about 0.6 to one millimeter slice thin.” Wang further noted, “We can actually make a replica of the patient’s exact heart, with an accuracy of one millimeter.”…