Brain tumors are rare, but terrifying. Not least because they’re difficult to diagnose and harder to treat; when you start cutting into brain matter, there are going to be compromises. Fortunately for Pamela Scott, her husband Michael Balzer was on the case.
Scott was diagnosed with a mass behind her left eye, which was dismissed as common and just to be looked at a year later. Balzer, a 3D graphics expert, requested her medical files, mostly to keep them on record. Then, a few months later, another MRI said Scott needed immediate surgery: The growth had suddenly jumped in size. The surgery in question, however, involved lifting her brain out of the way. As MAKE tells us, Balzer decided instead to get a second opinion:
Balzer [created] a 3D volume rendering from Scott’s DICOM images, which allowed him to look at the tumor from any angle. Then he uploaded the files to Sketchfab and shared them with neurosurgeons around the country in the hope of finding one who was willing to try a new type of procedure.
Balzer also used the models to print out a section of Pamela’s skull for doctors to test out the procedure. That model allowed them to better plan the surgery, and Pamela had her eyesight saved with a far less invasive technique.
It’s a pioneering technique but one that’s going to become more commonplace. As 3D scanners become standard for medical technology, and as 3D printers become more ubiquitous, surgeons and doctors will use more custom-fitted plastic models to plan out procedures before they cut anyone open. This is just the most dramatic demonstration of that… and an argument, for many, that we need this technology in hospitals sooner rather than later.