Doctors at a hospital in the US have piloted a
revolutionary new technique that means
surgeons of the future will no longer have to rely
on 2D X-rays, MRI scans, and their instincts to
peform complex surgical procedures.
Image: The Verge
When five-month-old Gabriel Mandeville started
having multiple episodes of violent spasms and
seizures, his mother Erin rushed him to the
Boston Children’s Hospital. The seizures, which
are nicknamed 'mind erasers', were having a
very serious effect on Gabriel's brain, making
him forget the fundamental things he was
learning, and his parents began to worry that at
some point, they would make him forget who
they were.
After much deliberation, the doctors suggested a
hemispherectomy as a treatment option, which is
a complex surgical procedure that disconnects
the heathy side of the brain from the side of the
brain that’s responsible for the seizures. Of
course, whether or not to put her infant son
through such an ordeal was a pretty devastating
decision for Erin Mandeville to make, but she
knew the seizures would have to be stopped in
order to ensure his mental development.
"I didn’t know how invasive it would be,” she
told Mona Lalwani at the Verge . "But, if it was
going to make him have a better life, it was an
easy choice to make."
What helped Erin make her decision was the
knowledge that the doctors were first going to
3D print an exact replica of little Gabriel’s brain,
which would allow the doctors to practice the
entire procedure prior to the operation. This
would be the first time that an infant’s brain has
ever been replicated.
Using what’s known as a Simulator Program at
the Boston Children’s Hospital, the doctors
printed a brain replica out of soft plastic, with a
precision of 16 microns per layer, says Lalwani.
Blood vessels were highlighted in a different
colour to make them stand out like they would in
Gabriel’s actual brain.
According to Joseph Madsen, director of the
epilepsy program at Boston Children’s Hospital,
the procedure required to perform a
hemispherectomy is "one of the most challenging
operations in paediatric epilepsy surgery,” and
even the world’s most highly trained and
experienced surgeons could do with a practice
run or two before the real thing. What the
printed version of a patient's brain lets them do
is hold, cut, manipulate, and look for little
characteristics that are unique to the individual
they're about to operate on. This is set to make
a huge difference for surgeons who, right now,
have to plan and perform surgical procedures
based on 2D X-rays, MRI scans, and instinct.
Since the Simulator Program began at the
hospital about a year ago, the doctors have
developed almost 100 3D prints, 20 percent of
which have been used in operating rooms so far.
Director of the Simulator Program, Peter
Weinstock, predicts that pretty soon they won’t
just be used for practice, but as parts in
emergency and trauma cases, were fragments of
bones need to be replaced, for example. "The
technology is coming," said Weinstock . "The
question is: how do we develop and make use of
the technology that will have an immediate effect
on how we take care of children?”
The operation with little Gabriel lasted 10 hours
and everything went as planned. Now 18 months
old, he is reportedly seizure-free. While he’s not
completely out of the woods just yet, his mother
is optimistic. “Kids’ brains are so resilient,” she
told Lalwani at the Verge. "He’s already re-wired
himself. He’s starting to hit the milestones he
missed - he wakes up smiling every day."
Head to the Verge to watch their video about the
procedure, which they're running as part of a
video series called Detours, about the people,
groups, and companies that are solving problems
in new and unconventional ways.
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