How CHOP’s Cutting-Edge 3-D Printers Help Patients—And Surgeons

The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has long been recognized as a pioneer of medical breakthroughs for kids. (After all, it consistently ranks as one of the Best Children’s Hospitals in the country, according to U.S. News and World Report.) It should come as no surprise, then, that the Cardiac Center has been using a 3-D printer—an Objet500 Connex, to be exact—to help improve cardiac patients’ outcomes. 

The brains behind the project are cardiologists Mark Fogel, MD, director of Cardiac Magnetic Resonance, and Yoav Dori, MD. Together, they’re using both the printer and MRI data to produce three-dimensional, full-size replicas of their patients’ hearts.

Why 3-D models? Even with the mounds of data and information that can be obtained from advanced imaging technology and traditional MRIs, it’s still difficult to plan highly detailed heart procedures without a comprehensive, 360-degree model. By printing a multilayered model, heart surgeons can test various approaches and create detailed presurgical plans prior to operating on patients.

This tool is just one of many physicians at CHOP’s Cardiac Center use to ensure they’re recommending the most informed and comprehensive course of treatment. The more information and detail that cardiologists and surgeons have before a complex surgery, the more successful the surgery will be.

For more information about the new and exciting research at CHOP’s Cardiac Center, visit the center’s heart disease awareness month page.