3D Printing + Virtual Reality Aid Anesthesiologists in Complex Airway Cases
Using patient-specific 3D or virtual reality (VR) models for preoperative assessment could help anesthesiologists better plan for procedures involving patients with suspected difficult airways. Although these modeling technologies have been used to train residents in intubation procedures, they are not as widely used in clinical anesthesia.
I can really see the potential for this. These cases are jolly challenging, and CT images only get you so far when planning them.
Here is a similar approach, published recently:
opengraphobject:[360747125628928 : https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33358011/ : title=“Difficult airways: a 3D printing study with virtual fibreoptic endoscopy - PubMed” : description=“Head and neck cancer patients present unique airway challenges, and oropharyngeal, laryngeal, and hypopharyngeal tumours considerably distort and narrow the anatomy of the airway. We describe the use of 3D augmented reality software combined with 3D printed models to assess the anatomy of difficult …”]