Researchers from China are exploring the feasibility of 3D printing for pre-planning of complex surgeries, detailing the results of their study, involving the data of 124 patients, in the recently published ‘Three-dimensional printing in the preoperative planning of thoracoscopic pulmonary segmentectomy .’

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The overall goal of the study was to compare 3D printing in pre-operative care to three-dimensional computed tomography (3D-CT) in thoracoscopic pulmonary segmentectomy. These procedures are meant to treat early-stage lung cancer and are expected to be used even more in the future to eradicate lung cancer caught in the beginning stages.

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The lung segment is much more complex than the pulmonary lobe, leaving surgeons to seek out better techniques for seeing the anatomy involved as well as guiding the surgery. The lobectomy is still the traditional method of choice, however, and using the pulmonary segmentectomy as treatment is considered controversial by some. Such a procedure […]

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