Woman has WHOLE skull replaced
... Her brain was being crushed by a rare bone condition
ADutch patient has become the first in the world to be given a total skull replacement. During a 23-hour operation the 22-year-old woman was given a 3D printed plastic skull.
The customised skull was implanted by neurosurgeons Dr Bon Verweij and Dr Marvick Muradin at University Medical Centre Utrecht.
The patient, who has not been named, suffered from a condition which caused her skull to become progressively thicker.
This caused her to suffer from headaches and put increased pressure on the brain.
In this patient’s case, it was also causing her eyesight to deteriorate and she was losing the ability to form facial expressions.
Her skull was almost five inches thick while a normal skull is about one to one and a half centimetres thick.
As her skull continued to thicken, the pressure on her brain continued to build and, without the surgery, she would have eventually lost crucial brain functions and died.
The surgery saw neurosurgeons replace the whole of the back of her skull - from her hairline to the top of her neck
” They replaced the bone with the plastic
implant which was attached
to the remaining
bone.
and from one ear to the other.
They replaced the bone with the plastic implant which was attached to the remaining bone.
The surgery went well and, three months on, the patient is completely symptom-free.
She has also fully regained her sight and has returned to work.
She is not expected to need further treatment.
Dr Verweij said: ‘It is almost impossible to see that she’s ever had surgery.’
Doctors have previously used 3D printed implants to replace parts of the skull – but they have never before replaced the full back part of a skull.
The surgeons say the technique could also be used to treat patients with severe skull injuries or tumours.
Culled from dailymail.co.uk
” It was causing her eyesight to deteriorate and she was losing the ability to form
facial expressions.