You can make guns with a 3D printer. You can also save a child's life.
Researchers at the University of Michigan have used a 3-D printer to create a custom-made, life-saving implant for a baby boy, they report today in a letter in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Or, if you prefer
medical-technical jargon:
Tracheobronchomalacia in newborns, which manifests with dynamic airway collapse and respiratory insufficiency, is difficult to treat. In an infant with tracheobronchomalacia, we implanted a customized, bioresorbable tracheal splint, created with a computer-aided design based on a computed tomographic image of the patient's airway and fabricated with the use of laser-based three-dimensional printing, to treat this life-threatening condition.
How about my interpretation?
They used a 3D scanner to create the blueprint to feed to a 3D printer to create a device that, implanted into the child's throat, was able to keep his breathing tube open.
It's even cooler than that.
...they custom-built a tiny, flexible splint that will grow with Kaiba ((the child)). Researchers used a special material designed to be absorbed by Kaiba's body in about three years...
Like a vacuum-cleaner hose, the C-shaped splint is flexible enough to move when Kaiba breathes. But it's also firm enough to prevent his air tube from flopping shut...
The porous splint is made from the same material as dissolvable stitches... Just as a wisteria vine grows through a trellis, Kaiba's body will create new cells to permeate the scaffold. By the time the splint is completely absorbed, doctors hope that Kaiba's own tissue will be sturdy enough to keep his airway open.
This was an emergency creation. The FDA gave the doctors emergency clearance to create the device back last year. Now
Doctors are now planning a clinical trial in order to create additional splints for children whose condition isn't immediately life-threatening.
Some say 3D printing is just the latest fad. Some say it will revolutionize the world's economy. The truth is probably somewhere in between. But if that means being able to inexpensively and quickly create life-saving and quality-of-life enabling devices, I'd be happy with splitting the difference.