Chinese toddler first in the world to have 3D printed skull

Beijing: A three-year-old girl in China has become the first person in the world to have her skull reconstructed with the help of 3D printing technology, after a 17-hour-long ground-breaking surgery. The girl was suffering from a medical condition called hydrocephalus, which causes a buildup of excess cerebrospinal fluid in the brain. The condition left her with a head weighing about 20 kg, while she herself weighs only 32 kg. Doctors said she is recovering steadily after the 3D-printed titanium alloy skull was implanted, becoming the first person to have her cranium successfully reconstructed by by 3D printers. Han Han underwent the 17-hour surgery on Wednesday at the Second People's Hospital of central China's Hunan Province and is under observation, said neurosurgeon Kuang Weiping, who is in charge of her treatment. Han was admitted to the hospital two months ago. Since September last year, she has become bedridden as her head grew four times the normal size, taking up more than half of her total weight, Xinhua news agency reported. Due to the heavy weight, parts of her brain suffered serious infections and she lost sight because her optic nerve was affected. Kuang said they believed her skull was likely to rupture as infected parts became thinner and only the "brain-shrinking" operation could save her life. During the process, neurosurgeons peeled her scalp and skull, then drained the fluid in her head. After the swollen structures in her brain returned to the normal size, they implanted the donated artificial skull and covered it with her scalp. — PTI. Source: Article 

Read More........→July 18, 2015

The first baby born from a womb transplant

Doctors in Sweden have announced the first baby born to a mother with a womb transplant. This pioneering operation offers hope to thousands of couples who are unable to conceive children.

In 2013, researchers at the University of Gothenburg completed a series of nine womb transplants on women in Sweden. Among the patients was an unnamed 36-year-old with Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome (MRKH), a rare condition that prevents the uterus from developing. Her ovaries were intact, however, so she could ovulate. This female became the recipient of a uterus donation from her 61-year-old family friend, the latter having gone through the menopause around seven years earlier. Drugs were needed to suppress the immune system, which otherwise would have resulted in the organ being rejected. Alongside this, IVF was used to produce 11 embryos, frozen and stored for later use. In January 2014, a year after the transplant, doctors successfully implanted one of these embryos into the patient, transferring it to her new womb. There were concerns over how well a transplanted uterus would

Credit: The Lancet

cope with the strains of pregnancy, during which it swells greatly in size. The procedure had been attempted by scientists in the past – but in each case, it led to either a miscarriage or organ failure caused by disease. On this occasion, however, the operation was successful. There were problems in the 31st week of pregnancy – as the mother developed a condition known as pre-eclampsia (characterised by high blood pressure) – but a caesarean section delivered a healthy baby boy weighing 3.9 pounds (1.8 kg); normal for that stage of pregnancy. British medical journal The Lancet has released a photo below and is due to publish a report on the case shortly. This milestone in reproductive medicine – the culmination of more than 10 years' research and surgical training – offers hope to thousands of couples who are unable to conceive children. The doctor who led the work, Prof. Mats Brännström, has issued a note of caution, however. In an interview he stated it will be "many, many years" before this operationbecomes routine. This is partly because of the extremely high cost, but also because it remains a new and somewhat experimental procedure, only performed by certain specialist surgeons in select centres and requiring various further studies. Dr Allan Pacey, of the British Fertility Society says: "I think it is brilliant and revolutionary, and opens the door to many infertile women. The scale of it feels a bit like IVF. It feels like a step change. The question is can it be done repeatedly, reliably and safely." "He’s no different from any other child – but he will have a good story to tell," the father says. "One day, he can look at the newspaper articles about how he was born and know that he was the first in the world to be born this way."Source: Article

Read More........→October 21, 2014