Surgeon Uses 3D Printer To Make Models Of Bone – And Saves Hospital Bookoo Bucks

While necessity is the mother of invention, frustratingly high costs can motivate us to ask if there’s another way. Mark Frame, an orthopedic surgeon in training, came up with a new way to make bone replicas that help surgeons plan their procedures. Not that anything was wrong with the replicas they had, but at hundreds or even thousands of pounds apiece, Frame searched for a cheaper way to get the same result. His first production, a plastic bone of a patient’s arm, cost just £77. And everything he needed was right there on the Internet.

Monklands Hospital in Scotland where Frame works typically enlists a bone prototyping shop at a local university to make their models based on CT scan images. They’d put in for a model of a patient who’d fractured his arm. Because of costs they ordered a truncated portion of the bone. The sub-optimal model still cost them more than $1,200...

...But, as 3D printers don’t normally handle CT scan images, Frame had to find a way to convert the images into a format the printers could use. And, of course, the final product had to be just as precise as those surgeons normally use. To accomplish this he used OsiriX, an image processing package specific for the kinds produced by imaging equipment, such as CT scanners. As OsiriX is open source software that runs on mac OS, Frame was able to use it free of charge. He then used a program called MeshLab – also open source, and free, for Mac – to clean up the image and make them medical quality. Finally, this image was sent to Shapeways for printing. Seven days later the model bone arrived in the mail. All for £77...