The 3D Printer is not just for making fancy sculptures or toys. It is also being used to help astronauts in space and to save the lives of babies on Earth.

This additive manufacturing -- or 3D printing -- saved the life of a baby who had a congenital heart defect (CHD) by building a new heart. Over a week ago it was reported that a baby boy born in July of this year was diagnosed with CHD. The chances of him surviving were slim, but the doctors and surgeons at the Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of New York-Presbyterian had the idea that a 3D printed heart could save his life.

The additive manufactured heart, along with medical experience and ingenuity saved the infant's life.

The 3D printed heart did not use same plastic materials, but was instead built from tissue. It was because of 3D printing technology that the surgeons were able to practice before the actual surgery, CNET reported.

The surgeons first observed the heart using CT scans, then, with funding from Matthew's Hearts of Hope, the medical team ordered a model heart from the Cardiovascular Business Development Manager Todd Pietila at Materialise.

Using Materialise's Mimics Innovation software, a 3D model of the heart was created. It was so accurate that it captured the heart's structure and defects in great detail.

Creating the heart was not easy. It was unusually complicated, in fact. Both the aorta and pulmonary arteries rose from the right ventricle. And, there was a large hole in the infant's walnut-sized heart. The difficulty that the surgeons faced in operating on the infant's heart galvanized them into using additive manufacturing.

When the 3D heart came, two days after they had ordered it, it was made out of a flexible material that was able to be cut and manipulated. This gave the surgeons the opportunity to make a plan to repair all of the heart's defects in one go.

The baby's heart surgery was a success.

"The baby's heart had holes, which are not uncommon with CHD, but the heart chambers were also in an unusual formation, rather like a maze," Dr. Emile Bacha, a congenital heart surgeon and Director of Congenital and Pediatric Cardiac Surgery, said. "In the past, we had to stop the heart and look inside to decide what to do. With this technique it was like we had a road map to guide us."

The 3D printed heart could change the way surgeons operate. Normally a surgeon sees the heart when the chest is open, but now they have the capability to plan out the surgery ahead of time, The Independent reported.

Besides New York using the 3D technology, one Kentucky surgeon has credited 3D printing with improving the odds of success in the most difficult surgeries. Using 3D Printer technology has taken off not only in the U.S., but in the U.K.

The National Health Service (NHS) is now exploring 3D printing in modern medicine. A Wiltshire-based 3D printing company, Replica 3DM, has provided 12 NHS Trust hospitals with additive manufacturing stations that will help to create replica hips for surgeons, so they could practice hip replacement surgeries.

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