A human bone printed on a 3D printer: a boy with cancer undergoes a transplant in western Ukraine (photo)
Doctors from Lviv, Kyiv, and Ivano-Frankivsk have successfully performed a 3D-printed bone transplant on an 8-year-old boy with cancer. This is the first operation of its kind to be conducted in western Ukraine.
Bohdan from Ivano-Frankivsk region is only 8 years old, and this is the second time he has faced a terrible disease.
“At the age of 3, he was diagnosed with liver cancer. Then the kid went a long way to recovery and underwent a complicated surgery to remove the tumor along with the gallbladder. Later, the boy went to school and developed like all other children. It seemed that everything was over. But the disease caught up with the child. This time, the cancer affected the bone,” the medical center said.
One day after school, Bohdanchyk complained to his parents about a severe pain in his leg, and over time, the limb swelled up. The family immediately turned to the doctors in Ivano-Frankivsk, who had already successfully treated their child.
“Bohdan underwent all the necessary examinations and a biopsy confirmed the worst fears – cancer again. This time it was Ewing’s sarcoma. This is a type of bone cancer that most often occurs in children and adolescents. Every year it is diagnosed in 3 children out of 1 million. The malignant tumor affected as much as 28 cm of the boy’s femur. To save his leg, it was necessary to remove the affected part and implant an implant in its place. Frankivsk doctors consulted with their colleagues from other cities of Ukraine on how to do this in the best way possible. Together they had been preparing for the surgery for six months. Meanwhile, the boy was receiving chemotherapy,” the doctors noted.
Bohdanchyk was sent to St. Nicholas Hospital in Lviv for surgery. Surgeons, oncologists and traumatologists from Lviv, Kyiv and Ivano-Frankivsk joined forces to save him. The operation was complicated.
“First, the doctors removed the tumor itself, and then conducted a rapid biopsy to find out exactly how much bone needed to be removed. The Kyiv-based engineers who made Bohdanchyk’s titanium implant prepared three versions of different lengths. All of them were printed on a 3D printer. The implants took a month to design and another two weeks to print. After the biopsy, the doctors removed the cancerous bone and fitted the boy with an implant of the right size that would grow with the child. The intervention lasted 6 hours and was successful. Important! This operation was performed in the western regions of Ukraine for the first time,” the First Medical Association of Lviv emphasized.
Now the boy has returned to Ivano-Frankivsk and continues his treatment. He has several more courses of polychemotherapy and radiation therapy ahead of him, as well as a bone marrow transplant.
