A 20-year-old woman has become the first-ever recipient of an ear created using 3D-printing technology.
Alexa was born with a congenital disorder called microtia, which caused her to have a small and misshapen right ear. In order to provide her with a new ear, Dr Arturo Bonilla, a paediatric ear reconstructive surgeon in San Antonio removed half a gram of cartilage from the patient’s ear remnant and sent it to a laboratory along with a 3D scan of her healthy ear. The result was a brand new ear created from the patient’s cells.
The printing process took less than 10 minutes.
Cornell-founded start-up 3DBio Therapeutics was the New York-based company behind the “revolutionary” transplant. Independent experts said that the procedure, which was part of the first clinical trial of a successful medical application of this technology, was a stunning advance in the field of tissue engineering. The new ear, transplanted in March, will continue to regenerate cartilage...