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3D printing process (creative commons)

Case contributed by Candace Makeda Moore
Diagnosis certain

Presentation

Known liver tumor pending surgical operation.

Slice with segmented view

ct

Example of one axial CT slice of a abdomen including liver with heterogeneous hypodense area of tumor to be resected. Colored areas superimposed onto axial CT slices, including the one shown, represent segmented parts for making a mesh file (a specific type of surface rendering) for 3D visualization and printing.

Mesh file & photo of 3D print

Photo

 Surface rendered polygonal mesh based on segmented CT showing tumor and vasculature and final 3D printed model of liver. The print is made of polylactic acid filaments.

Case Discussion

These images show one of the most typical 3D printing workflows for surgical planning in which a 3D modality i.e. CT or MRI is segmented semi-automatically via computer algorithms into relevant organs to prepare a mesh file, then printed by fused deposition modeling.

Authors: Witowski et al.

Originally published in European Radiology: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-019-06511-2

Modifications: Cropped and adjusted into two pages.

License: This file is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution--Non-Commercial 4.0 International License. (CC BY NC 4.0)

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