Experience in Using Additive Manufacturing of Cerebral Aneurysms as a 3D Assistant Tool in Surgical Planning

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM) is being increasingly disseminated in several areas of knowledge. In medicine, the use of 3D models arrived to facilitate diagnoses, assist in the assessment of pathological changes, in the training of new professionals, and patient-specific anatomical 3D visualization. This study aimed to perform a rapid and low-cost additive manufacturing of patient-specific intracranial aneurysms to facilitate anatomical visualization of the aneurysms. For this purpose, patient-specific models were manufactured in an FDM 3D printer from DICOM images of CT angiography or digital subtraction angiography. We obtained 15 models of intracranial aneurysms, with different sizes and geometries, which were used by neurosurgeons as part of the surgical planning of each case. AM is a quick and low-cost option to produce patient-specific AI models; however, further studies are still required to improve the technique.