Oct 10, 2017 | By Tess
A team of surgeons from the Amiens-Picardie University Hospital in France has successfully performed a complex spinal surgery on a six-year-old boy with the help of a robot and a patient-specific 3D printed model. The procedure was the first of its kind.
The patient in question is a six-year-old boy who was suffering from a combination of severe progressive scoliosis and infantile spinal amyotrophy, a condition that causes weak muscles. The scoliosis had become so severe that the young boy could not even sit. Obviously, something had to be done.
The complex surgery, which took place on September 28, was the result of over a year of planning on the part of Dr. François Deroussen, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon; Professor Richard Gouron, head of the child surgery department at the hospital; and Dr. Michel Lefranc, a neurosurgeon.
To prepare for the operation, the doctors took a scan of the child to get a detailed visualization of the position and state of his spine. With the 3D scan, the doctors were able to take their planning one step further by 3D printing an accurate replica model of the patient’s spine.