Now she is at home and will be able to hold her daughter in her arms. A wrist “tailored”, made with a 3D printer, saves the right hand of a 39-year-old new mother affected by a rare tumor, with the wrist completely blocked after the operations to try to stop the disease and which, without the intervention, would have made amputation necessary. The exceptional intervention – unique in the world for its complexity – was carried out by the team of Julius Maccaurodirector of the UOC of Orthopedics, together with Antonio Ziranu, of theFatebenefratelli Hospital Tiber Island – Twins Island and ofCatholic UniversityElisabetta Pataia and Camillo Fulchignoni both from Gemelli.
Inoperable tumor for the whole world removed by the team of the Sant’Andrea hospital in Rome. Rocca: “This is the healthcare we want for Lazio”
«The uniqueness of the intervention – explains Maccauro – is dictated both by the technical complexity given the patient’s conditions, and by the extreme engineering complexity of making the prosthesis, which is only possible thanks to 3D printers». The prosthesis was custom made by an Italian company. Now able to move all the fingers on her hand, the woman was suffering from a rare tumor that had destroyed the joint in her right wrist.
Rare wrist cancer, 3D prosthesis avoids amputation
Now he has regained the use of his hand. «The use of a customized 3D prosthesis allowed us to adapt the intervention to the patient’s needs, guaranteeing accurate anatomical reproduction and a high degree of functionality. Wrist reconstruction represents a significant advance in restoring the patient’s motor skills, compromised by an aggressive and relapsing giant cell tumor. «It was necessary to replace the wrist with a prosthesis. We have contacted Adler-Ortho, specialized in the design and production of joint prostheses which, starting from the Tac and following our indications, created a prototype on the PC, 3D printed in plastic; we asked for some modifications and then 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.