Division students explore applications of 3D printing in surgery

UCL intercalated surgical sciences students are one of the UK’s first undergraduate medical students (to our knowledge) to be formally trained to explore applications of 3D printing in surgery.

These undergraduate medical students were provided with the opportunity to learn and apply advances in additive manufacture through a module in  ‘biomimetic in surgery’, where they were able to 3D model organs/diseased tissue of patients, which were imaged with  CT scans or equivalent and 3D print bespoke implants and 3D models of organs of interest.

Eg: figure 2 from the article Three-dimensional printing and the surgeon; A. de Mel BJS DOI: 10.1002/bjs.10188. You can read the article via this link: http://bit.ly/1T2ySLV

An exponential growth in 3D printing technologies by scientists and clinicians has occurred in recent years, in the hope of improving patient care and outcomes. This technology already influences current clinical practice in preoperative planning, the use of intraoperative surgical aids and the development of bespoke prostheses

iBSc surgical sciences students are also trained to apply molecular biology and cell culture methods as a core module to address scientific questions and clinical needs.

For more information about the Surgical Sciences iBSc visit: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/surgery/courses/ibsc-surgical-sciences