A ‘customized’ wrist, made with a 3D printer, saves the right hand of a woman suffering from a rare tumor, with the wrist completely blocked following operations to try to stop the disease which, without the operation, would have made amputation required.
The exceptional operation – unique in the world for its complexity – was carried out by the team of Giulio Maccauro, director of the UOC of Orthopedics, together with Antonio Ziranu, of the Fatebenefratelli Isola Tiberina – Gemelli Isola Hospital and of the Catholic University, Elisabetta Pataia and Camillo Fulchignoni both from Gemelli.
“The uniqueness of the intervention – explains Maccauro to ANSA – is dictated both by the technical complexity of the same given the patient’s conditions, and by the extreme engineering complexity of making the prosthesis, possible only thanks to the use of 3D printers”. The prosthesis was custom made by an Italian company.
Now able to move all the fingers on her hand, the young woman had already undergone several surgeries to treat a rare tumor that had completely destroyed her right wrist joint. The woman regained the use of her hand and averted an amputation.
“The use of a personalized 3D prosthesis – explains Maccauro – allowed us to adapt the intervention to the specific needs of the patient, guaranteeing an accurate anatomical reproduction and a high degree of functionality. The reconstruction of the wrist carried out represents a considerable progress in the restoration of the patient’s motor skills”, completely compromised, due to a locally aggressive giant cell tumor that had relapsed several times. It was necessary, to save her hand, to replace her wrist with a prosthesis. “For this – adds Maccauro – we contacted Adler-Ortho, specialized in the design and production of joint prostheses which, starting from the patient’s CT scan and following our instructions, created a prototype on the computer, 3D printed in plastic; we examined it , asked to make some modifications and at that point the final prosthesis was ‘printed’ in chronocobalt and titanium”.
The patient is fine, she has already returned home and is continuing her hand rehabilitation sessions.
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