------Program code: NS-081202-03799 (what's this?)
Source: CCTV.com
12-02-2008 11:10
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These pictures were taken before and after these patients underwent surgery. These patients all suffered from maxillofacial bone tumors. If the cancerous bone is not immediately removed and replaced with an artificial bone, it’ll lead to aphasia, difficulty in eating and even death. Making artificial bones quickly has become the key to a successful surgery.
In the past, it would take 2 -3 months to make an artificial bone using traditional processing methods. For a cancer patient whose cancer cells can spread at any time, she or he can’t afford the wait. Is there a faster way to solve this problem?
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The following process solves this problem. It combines diagnosis, CT scanning and data gathering. In addition, there’s a personalized design, molding, and making and implanting of the artificial bones.
This whole process can be finished in less than 8 days.
The time needed has been reduced from 2 - 3 months to 8 days. This is a medical miracle. At the core of this process is rapid prototyping technology.
Now, after having had such surgeries, the patients can work and live normally.
Rapid prototyping technology combines lasers, digital technology and photosensitive resins. It’s known for its speed, precision and flexibility.
As a new type of light source, a laser has two notable features. First, it has high energy and it’s bright. Its brightness is several hundred times higher than that of the sun’s surface. Second, it has excellent orientation. If a laser beam is focused on the moon’s surface from the earth, its diffusion scope is less than two kilometers.
Because of these two features, lasers have been widely used in industry, agriculture, medicine and defense.
This photosensitive resin is placed in the rapid prototyping machine’s container. This liquid resin reacts in an interesting way to the laser. Once the laser hits it, the resin can cure or solidify very fast. And the cured resin is very strong. Because a laser beam has excellent orientation, it can accurately focus on one point. With the scanning, the resin can be molded into a pre-designed model. In the rapid prototyping machine, the laser beam is controlled through a computer program.
