Page 314 - IJB-9-2

International Journal of Bioprinting

RESEARCH ARTICLE
Manufacturing flexible vascular models

for cardiovascular surgery planning and
endovascular procedure simulations: An

approach to segmentation and post-processing
with open-source software and end-user 3D

printers

Reinhard Kaufmann , Michael Deutschmann , Matthias Meissnitzer ,
1
1
1
Bernhard Scharinger , Klaus Hergan , Andreas Vötsch , Christian Dinges ,
1
2
2
1
Stefan Hecht *
1
1 Department of Radiology, University Hospital Salzburg, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg,
Austria
2 Clinic of Cardiac, Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, University Hospital Salzburg, Paracelsus
Medical University, Salzburg, Austria
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Novel culture techniques for 3D bioprinted tissue surrogates to build
patient-specific models)
Abstract
*Corresponding author:
Stefan Hecht Three-dimensional (3D)-printed vascular models for cardiovascular surgery planning
(s.hecht@salk.at)
and endovascular procedure simulations often lack realistic biological tissues mim-
Citation: Kaufmann R, icking material properties, including flexibility or transparency, or both. Transparent
Deutschmann M, Meissnitzer M, silicone or silicone-like vascular models were not available for end-user 3D printers
et al., 2023, Manufacturing flexible
vascular models for cardiovascular and had to be fabricated using complex and cost-intensive workarounds. This limita-
surgery planning and endovascular tion has now been overcome by novel liquid resins with biological tissue properties.
procedure simulations: An These new materials enable simple and low-cost fabrication of transparent and flexi-
approach to segmentation and
post-processing with open-source ble vascular models using end-user stereolithography 3D printers and are promising
software and end-user 3D printers. technological advances toward more realistic patient-specific, radiation-free proce-
Int J Bioprint. 9(2): 669. dure simulations and planning in cardiovascular surgery and interventional radiol-
https://doi.org/10.18063/ijb.v9i2.669
ogy. This paper presents our patient-specific manufacturing process of fabricating
Received: August 11, 2022 transparent and flexible vascular models using freely available open-source software
Accepted: September 22, 2022
Published Online: January 13, for segmentation and 3D post-processing, aiming to facilitate the integration of 3D
2023 printing into clinical care.
Copyright: © 2023 Author(s).
This is an Open Access article
distributed under the terms of the Keywords: 3D printing; Endovascular simulation; Flexible; Biological tissue; Resin
Creative Commons Attribution
License, permitting distribution
and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is
properly cited. 1. Introduction
Publisher’s Note: Whioce Three-dimensional (3D) printing, also known as additive manufacturing or rapid
Publishing remains neutral with prototyping, has been increasingly utilized in medicine over the past few decades. Many
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional studies have documented the wide spectrum and increasing application of vascular and
affiliations. non-vascular 3D-printed models in clinical medicine and radiology for educational

Volume 9 Issue 2 (2023) 306 https://doi.org/10.18063/ijb.v9i2.669