He was born without a nose, but now has a perfect one for his face. A 5-year-old boy, born prematurely and without a nasal pyramid, received an extraordinary nasal reconstruction “copying” that of his twin brother. This incredible surgery was carried out by the team at the Meyer pediatric hospital in Florence thanks to 3D printing. “Now I’m like the others,” he declared first to his family.
The reconstruction surgery was performed by the team led by Dr. Flavio Facchini, specialist in plastic and reconstructive surgery. The child had only two “nostrils” on his face for breathing. Using modern 3D scanning technologies, the geometry of the twin’s face was acquired, and the nose shape was used to design and print supporting tools for the surgeon. Thanks to 3D technology, “templates” were created which allowed fragments of costal cartilage to be taken with very high precision, making the operation as less invasive as possible.
These fragments were assembled to build the bony and cartilaginous scaffold of the new nose, subsequently covered with skin flaps taken from the child’s forehead and mucous tissue. Again using the 3D images of the brother’s face, a sterile transparent mask was also created which allowed the perfect correspondence of dimensions to be verified during the operation. The first operation lasted over seven hours, followed by a second finishing operation. Both succeeded perfectly and the little one has already returned home and to nursery.
“Everything went very well, this meeting with Meyer gave our child back his self-confidence and the hope of a normal life, like that of his twin. Looking at himself now he says ‘Now I’m really like my little brother and my classmates!’” Said the mother of the two children.
The delicate operation was possible thanks to the collaboration between the Meyer surgeons and T3Ddy (www.t3ddy.org), the laboratory supported by the Meyer Foundation and coordinated by professor Monica Carfagni for the University of Florence and by engineer Kathleen McGreevy for Meyer, dedicated precisely to the introduction of innovative 3D technologies into clinical practice. In the room, together with Dr. Facchini, there were pediatric surgeon Alessandra Martin, as well as anesthetists and nurses, the latter trained with a specific course in preparation for operations of this type.
TGCOM24 reports it.
