What if your surgeon could practice your procedure before going into the operating room?

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An innovation team in Phoenix, Arizona is 3D- printing the spines of patients who have severe scoliosis so there are no surprises on operation day.

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Megan Johansen was diagnosed with scoliosis at age nine. When her fourth child turned three years old, her spine collapsed to a 90-degree bend. Johansen said, “I couldn’t breathe, and I was starting to have really bad heart palpitations where it just felt like it was going to be beating out my chest or it would just, like, seize up.” She knew she finally needed surgery. Surgeons at Barrow Neurological Institute use CT and MRI scans to make 3D models of patients’ spines before surgery. Michael Bohl, MD, Founder and Director of the Barrow Neurological Institute said, “We know how to print these spines in such […]

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