The ability to 3D-print brain vessels from silicone can help improve neurosurgery
According to recent research, 3D printing with silicone is a new technique that allows neurosurgeons to create accurate models of blood vessels in the brain. This allows them to practice their skills using more realistic simulations.
Many neurosurgeons practice each surgery before they get into the operating room based on models of what they know about the patient’s brain. But the current models neurosurgeons use for training don’t mimic real blood vessels well. They lack important structural details, provide inaccurate tactile feedback and can often be missing entire anatomical components. Pre-surgery simulations that simulate the brains of patients could help reduce errors in real surgery.
However, 3D printing could produce replicas with the soft touch and structural accuracy that surgeons require.
3D printing is often thought of as a process where layers of melted plastic are laid down and then solidify as a structure is constructed. However, soft materials are not able to melt and resolidify as quickly as the 3D printers usually use. Users only get one shot with soft materials like silicone – they have to be printed while in a liquid state and then irreversibly solidified.
3D Shaping Liquids
How can you create a 3D complex shape from liquids, without making it a puddle or a lump?
This was possible using an embedded 3D printer, which researchers have developed. With this technique, the “ink” is deposited inside a bath of a second supporting material designed to flow around the printing nozzle and trap the ink in the place right after the nozzle moves away. By holding liquids in three-dimensional space, users can create complex shapes from them until they are solidified. The embedded 3D printing process has proven to be effective in structuring soft materials such as hydrogels, microparticles, and even living cells.
Printing with silicone is still a difficult task. Although liquid silicone is an oils, most support materials made from water are water-based. High interfacial tension is a driving force behind the formation of oil droplets in water. This force can also cause 3D-printed silicone structures, even in support media, to deform.
These interfacial forces can cause small-diameter silicon features to become droplets while they are printed. While silicone materials can be printed without support thanks to a lot of research, these modifications can also affect the properties that users are most concerned about, such as how soft or stretchy the silicone.
3D printing silicone with AMULIT
Researchers at the interface of mechanical engineering, soft matter physics, and materials science decided to solve the problem of interfacial strain by creating a silicone-oil support material.
We thought that most silicone inks would chemically be similar to our silicone supporting material. However, they could also be different enough to stay separated when 3D printed. Although we tried many different candidate materials, we found that the best way to create a dense emulsion from silicone oil and water was to do so. It can be compared to crystal clear mayonnaise made from microdroplets of water and a continuum silicone oil. This method is called additive manufacturing at ultralow interfacial strain, or AMULIT.
Our AMULIT support medium allowed us to print off-the shelf silicone at high resolution. We were able create features as small and as small as 8 micrometers (around 0.03 inches). The printed structures are as flexible and durable as their traditional molded counterparts.
These capabilities enabled us to 3D-print accurate models of a patient’s brain blood vessels based on a 3D scan as well as a functioning heart valve model based on average human anatomy.
3D silicone printing in the health care industry
Silicone is an important component in many products. These include everyday items like toys and cookware to high-tech electronics and aerospace technologies.
Silicone products can be made by injecting silicone liquid into a mold, and then removing the cast from solidification. High-precision mold manufacturing is expensive and difficult. Therefore, manufacturers can only produce products in a limited number of sizes, shapes, or designs. It is difficult to remove delicate silicone structures from molds. Manufacturing defects are also more common when molding intricate structures.
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These challenges can be overcome and advanced silicone-based technology could be developed in the health care sector. Personalized implants or mimics of physiological structures may transform care.
Senthilkumar Duraivel, Ph.D. Candidate in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Florida and Thomas Angelini Associate Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida
This article is republished under Creative Commons licence from The Conversation. The original article is available here.
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