An 18-month-old born with a rare condition — a triangular front of the head — underwent a successful surgery to correct the deformity at a private hospital in the city recently. Normally, the bones forming the skull are separated by joints called sutures, which also serve as centres of growth. Dr Sonal Gupta, director, neuro and spine surgery, Fortis Shalimar Bagh, said these sutures fuse at set times after birth, resulting in lack of skull growth in a direction perpendicular to the suture.

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“However, the brain is still growing rapidly during this period and needs space to do so. Therefore, the condition needed to be corrected, as it could hamper the neuro-psychological development of the child, in addition to the obvious aesthetic defect,” she added. The doctor said they fed the digital data from the patient’s 3D CT scan into the 3D printer to print two rapid prototype skull and upper face models, which were exact replicas of the patient’s skull. “We worked on these to determine the exact size of the bony cuts on the patient’s skull. There was no scope for even smallest of deviations, as it could cause blindness, profuse bleeding or even brain […]

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