3D printers are changing transplant surgery for the better.
Here is how it works.
3D printed bones, and organs: You have probably heard from me
before about how 3D printers can print organs from your own cells. They do so
by laying cell after cell onto each other as they bond. The result is a
new organ. But before they were imperfect and still required rejection
medications. Some required other foreign materials like meshes and
screws. But science is changing that. Meshes can now be made from
your own cells to allow your body to repair itself naturally. Less and
less chemicals are needed during and after transplants for your body is less
likely to reject them. But here is something even more creative.
Bone transplants and surgeries typically required screws to hold them in
place. Artificial bones could not grow with the individual and thus
multiple surgeries were required. Heck, just to take screws out required
surgeries as the screws would rust and cause blood poisoning. But with 3D
printers, they can print new bones and even biodegradable organic screws.
Recently they made screws out of cartilage which would degrade over time
by the body’s natural fluids as the hole in the bone would be slowly filled
with natural calcium, thus eliminating the need for follow up surgeries.
This also proves the potential for not just whole organs to be made, but
parts of organs to be made and spliced on. The potential for medicine is
endless.
Conclusion: The progress and potential of this
technology is progressing in such a way that costs for transplant surgeries
will go down exponentially. There will no longer be a need for waiting
lists for organs, no follow up surgeries, no need for rejection drugs (to a degree).
Cheap reliable medicine for all.
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