3D printing organs as shown on Grey’s Anatomy

Since starting this blog, I have watched a number of Grey’s Anatomy episodes and NCIS Los Angeles episodes and a few of them have had 3D printing on them. I found it fascinating to see that within such a short time (2 months) of talking and finding out how large this industry actually is I witnessed it being used on prime time television. When seen on TV it brings attention to how this industry has progressed and how useful it is to solving some key dilemmas especially in the medical industry.

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I always stream videos on line for tv shows in order to make them ad-free. This is the link for Grey Anatomy (http://www.free-tv-video-online.me/player/vidbull.php?id=1erx947rmvhi) , when Meredith Grey is stuck on a tumor that is intertwined in a number of organs (mainly surrounding the heart). She cannot locate where the start and end of this tumor is and has no visual because all the scans show something but slightly different. In order to get something tangible and handheld to see precisely where and how this tumor is formed Meredith decides to use a 3D printer to print the tumor. They wait several hours for the tumor to print and when it does all the doctors and residence working on the case are amazed at how precise it is. They then spend countless hours going through every possible situation, case, and movement in order to know exactly how to deal with such an issue inside the women’s body. Due to 3 of the doctors having to assist during the surgery each of them needs to know and anticipate what movement the other is going to make. The tumor was printed because they could not see the exact size or image when the patient was initially opened thus going through the motions of the surgery with this prototype is key to creating a successful surgery. Each surgeon needs to be aware of where their hands are, what they are feeling , and where the others hands/tools are in respect to their in order to cohesively work together and no sudden movements are made. While doing this “practice” surgery a number of residence are in the room taking notes and listening in order to get practical life experience to see how Grey and the others handle this once in a life time situation. It is the best way to learn by watching instead of reading it out of a book.  I say that it is a once in a life time experience but with this technology it will be more frequent in days to come that doctors in the real world will have this technology at their finger tips to help and assist with more difficult cases that need to be solved.

Where else have you seen 3D printing used on TV shows?