Groundbreaking Complete Skull Reconstruction Saves 3-year-old’s Life
Han Han was born with a rare disorder called congenital hydrocephalus, which caused her head to grow four times larger than was normal. At three years old, she wasn’t expected to live much longer unless something was done about the condition. Doctors in China, her home country, came to the rescue by developing a titanium mesh skull with the help of a 3D printer. Surgeons at the Second People’s Hospital of Hunan Province were successfully able to remove most of Han Han’s skull and replace it with the titanium one. Now, Han Han is expected to make a full recovery, with a new lease on life.
Han Han was first diagnosed with hydrocephalus at 6 months. The disease usually develops in the womb or at birth, causing an excess of fluid to fill the brain. By the time her father was able to arrange her surgery, Han Han’s brain weighed about 20 kg, while her overall body weight was 32 kg. She was no longer able to lift her head from her pillow, and doctors gave her about two months to live if nothing was done.
According to Dr. Bo of the Second People’s Hospital, “CT results showed that Han Han’s brain was filled 80 percent with water. If she was not sent to hospital for treatment, Han Han would not have survived the summer. We had to first eliminate the infection in Han Han’s head because the brain wound area was too large, and we needed to do skin graft surgery and insert a shunt to help eliminate the infection, and remove the fluid from her brain.”
At first, the surgery may not have been a possibility, if it wasn’t for the efforts of Chen Youzhi, Han Han’s father, in collecting donations for the procedure. Despite the use relatively inexpensive 3D printing technology to create the skull prosthetic, the surgery was incredibly expensive. Han Han’s mother left the family when she was only one year old, but that didn’t hinder Youzhi’s efforts. A combination of funding from family and friends and online donations helped Youzhi collect a portion of the money needed for the surgery, which cost between $64,000-$80,000 USD.
The surgeons were able to create a model of Han Han’s skull using 3D printing technology and a CT scanner. They created three titanium implants that would work together to replace the top of her skull. In a seventeen-hour surgery, doctors had to first drain away the fluid from her brain, and then insert saline pads to cushion her new titanium skull.
While the surgery is seen as the first complete skull replacement in the world, it is one among many successful partial skull and face reconstructions made possible with 3D printing. American baby Gabriel was born with unilateral coronal synostosis, which caused his growth plates to fuse prematurely. Doctors were able to create 3D models of his skull to help them practice a delicate procedure to cut and reshape his bones to correct the problem. Gabriel emerged from a successful reconstruction surgery just last year.
These surgeries are only two of the many examples of how young children are able to benefit from advanced procedures that would otherwise be too risky for them to attempt, with the help of 3D printing.
Photo Credits: Medical Daily and Fox News
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