Ear bionic, 3D, artificial, bioprinted. Call it what you like, but the regenerative medicine operation conducted in the United States is truly unique, with the hope that research can further advance and make what is extraordinary in the ordinary today. All in the name of human health and life, as demonstrated recently also with the 3D printed ocular prosthesis implanted on an English patient. But in this case it goes even further, with results that bode well for tomorrow’s medicine.
BI-PRINTED AND FDA APPROVED EAR
The experimental ear implant is called AuriNovowas 3D printed and applied to the patient with the approval of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which authorized its use. Indeed, better to say biostampato Why surgical reconstruction of the external ear was performed using tissue extracted from the patient himselfborn with a rare congenital deformity named microtia “in which one or both of the external ears are absent or underdeveloped“In practice, the solution favors cellular material taken from the cartilage and reconstructed in 3D bio-printing with alternative treatments such as the use of synthetic materials.
AuriNovo is a patient-specific living tissue implant created using 3D bioprinting technology for surgical reconstruction of the external ear in people born with grade II-IV microtia.
The ear is made on the basis of the scan of the other ear, so that correct specularity is ensured. The cells of the auricular cartilage are used for the 3D bioprint of the ear which thus replaces the one affected by microtia.
My hope is that AuriNovo will someday become the standard of care replacing current surgical methods for ear reconstruction that require rib cartilage harvesting or the use of porous polyethylene (PPE) implants – Dr. Arturo Bonilla and director of the Microtia-Congenital Ear Deformity Institute in San Antonio, Texas.
EXPERIMENTAL PHASE THAT PROMISES WELL
We are still in an experimental phase: with the surgical reconstruction of the external ear in the patient born with unilateral microtia, we intend to collect valuable data on technology and its safety. So a decidedly solution less invasive than using rib cartilage and more flexible than using synthetic materials. This is how tissue engineering technology can be of concrete help to medicine: in the future, a similar application is hoped for for the treatment of nasal defects and even for the reconstruction of organs.
Credits opening image: Pixabay