The national brand BQ , famous both for its smartphones and for its other devices such as tablets or ebooks, has also established itself, with a very firm step, in the field of 3D printing. We are talking about the Witbox 2 3D printer, an improved version of their first machine, with which, in collaboration with the Virgen del Rocío Hospital (Seville), they are carrying out work that helps save lives on operating tables.
The common project is based on the fact that specialists use the 3D printing machine to print replicas of hearts with severe congenital heart disease – in 3D, of course -, which will then be used by surgeons to practice and prepare the most complex surgical interventions with more precision, perfecting the technique and method of action before entering the operating room.
Improving the planning of operations is crucial to being successful and reducing the risk of unforeseen complications in the middle of the operation . Considering that each heart is unique, knowing in advance what the shape of the heart is, its size, its internal cavities or the way in which it is connected to the great vessels that surround it is crucial to cope with cases of congenital heart disease. severe, especially among the smallest, where there are 8 out of 1,000 cases of newborns with this problem.
How are hearts printed?
As it is crucial to know precisely the anatomical structures of each patient, the experts use flexible filaments to print the replicas of the hearts , which are generated from CT and MRI images, perfectly recreating the unique shape of the organs in 3D and allow specialists to observe the heart in their hands to find the best way to approach the intervention before reaching the time of the operation.
Since 2006, more than 1,500 virtual reconstructions of real patient cases have been carried out and since 2011 pieces for patients have been printed in more than 400 of the cases.
The use of the Witbox 2 at the Virgen del Rocío Hospital has thus made it possible to gain in surgical precision, reduce surgery times and increase the success rate of operations.
About the Witbox 2
The fully opensource Witbox 2 printer (free software) has a steel chassis, linear bearings, a good print volume of 297 x 210 x 200 mm, closed print space with a lockable door, a resolution of up to 20 microns, a self-leveling print bed that uses neodymium magnets to attach to the chassis making it easily removable and has an SD card reader as well as a USB port to enter the designs to print, among other features.
