Prospects for the use of 3D-printing when planning surgery

Abstract

Modern visual techniques are an important component of the preoperative planning in plastic and reconstructive surgery. The purpose of this review is to present the latest information about the possibilities and prospects of using 3D-printing in the planning of complex surgical interventions. Surgical teams carefully perform an optimal approach and the most important stages of the forthcoming operation, using customised 3D-model as a template. Individual anatomical features of the body structure, as well as the type of blood supply and innervation are taken into account. The data on successful use of preoperative planning implementing 3D-models in cardiac surgery, transplantation, plastic and reconstructive surgery, traumatology, urology and many other areas is analysed in this work. The effectiveness of operations using 3D-models is achieved through the complete match of the operated area to a patient’s organs in the scale of 1:1. The time required for the operation is also reduced due to the well-coordinated work of surgical teams. Duration of anaesthesia and blood loss is reduced too. The disadvantage of the method may include additional costs and a quite lengthy process of creating a 3D-model. However, given the rapid development of digital technology, it can be assumed that the use of personalised 3D-models will be available in ordinary
clinical practice in the near future.