Ever since he was six weeks old, an Ohio infant with a condition called tracheobronchomalacia would stop breathing because part of his windpipe carrying air to his left lung would collapse, requiring emergency assistance. But, thanks to a team of doctors and engineers at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, who created a new, bioresorbable device called a tracheal splint, using a 3D printer, Kaiba is now breathing freely, his life spared.
Contacted by the child’s doctor, Glenn Green, MD, associate professor of pediatric otolaryngology at the University of Michigan and his colleague, Scott Hollister, PhD, professor of biomedical engineering and mechanical engineering and associate professor of surgery at U-M, obtained emergency clearance from the FDA to create and implant a tracheal splint for Kaiba made of a biopolymer called polycaprolactone.
On February 9, 2012, the specially-designed splint was implanted in Kaiba at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital. The splint was sewn around his airway to expand the bronchus and give it a skeleton to aid proper growth. The doctors say that within three years, the splint will be reabsorbed by the body. Kaiba was off ventilator support 21 days after the procedure, and has not had breathing trouble since then.
Green and Hollister were able to make the custom-designed, custom-fabricated device using high-resolution imaging and computer-aided design. The device was created directly from a CT scan of Kaiba's trachea/bronchus, integrating an image-based computer model with laser-based 3D printing to produce the splint.
“The image-based design and 3-D biomaterial printing process we used for Kaiba can be adapted to build and reconstruct a number of tissue structures. We’ve used the process to build and test patient-specific ear and nose structures. Scott has also used the method with other collaborators to rebuild bone structures in pre-clinical models,” said Green.
