3D printing: A stepping stone to new human tissue and body parts

 His team of doctors and engineers triggered headlines around the world last week by successfully operating to replace an elderly patient’s diseased jawbone with a prosthetic generated by 3D printing. Now Prof. Jules Poukens says that could be just the start of a bionic revolution.

“I think there are no limits to this,” Poukens said, adding that the digitalized three-dimensional printing technique can be used for larger bones and in the longer term, even organs. “You can compare this to the first walk on the moon,” he said in a telephone interview. “We can replicate bones and even make them stronger than the original. It’s like the Six Million Dollar Man.” Poukens’ Belgian-Dutch team announced on early February that they had achieved a medical first by using a 3D printer to create an exact replica of the patient’s jawbone made from powered titanium. In a four-hour operation, the implant was inserted to replace the 83-year-old patient’s severely infected original jaw. The woman was able to leave hospital within three days after the operation and quickly recovered breathing, speech, chewing and sensation functions, announced the University of Hasselt, in eastern Belgium, where Poukens teaches. The shape of the woman’s face was also restored.

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