Value of 3D Printing for Comprehension of Liver Surgical Anatomy
Value of 3D Printing for Comprehension of Liver Surgical Anatomy
To our knowledge, it has not been analyze whether 3D printed liver model would improve the perception of a given liver tumor or the precision of operation planning in liver surgery. We design this prospective controlled trial to test whether the 3D-printed patient specific liver model could be more informative than standard MDCT (multi-row detector computed tomography ) and 3D visualization system in predicting the surgical anatomy of liver.
The primary objective was to investigate whether 3D printing can improve localization of hepatic pathology. The secondary objective was to investigate whether 3D printing can improve the precision of surgical proposal.
The dataset of patients were prepared and stratified into MDCT, 3D visualization system and 3D printed liver model groups. The process started from MDCT scan image acquisition and moved through image segmentation and 3D rendering to end up with 3D printing.
Surgical residents were assigned to three different groups to study different modes of patients' data. Residents were ask to state the liver segment in which the tumor resides and make a minimal resection proposal, including the tumor, the safety margin (1cm) and the dependent liver tissue. Residents were recommended to proceed in a classic way by resecting the whole liver segment. The time spent by each resident was also recorded in order to assess the quickness of comprehension and information transfer of the three different modes of presentation.
Inclusion Criteria:
Exclusion Criteria: