Kaiba Gionfriddo is born in 2011 in the USA with a tracheobronchomalaciai.e. an infection which might obstruct his respiration at any time because of a subsidence of trachea and lungs. Before the prosthesis was placed, Kaiba stopped breathing regularly and required resuscitation daily. He was six weeks old when he turned blue for the first time.

Usually, doctors use handmade metal-framed prosthesis to treat their patients, but their production is very long and difficult, and you can not be sure that they will be perfectly adapted to the sick person.

In order to find quickly a prosthesis that would be perfectly adapted to a little baby, Glenn Green (doctor at the University of Michigan) and his team decided to create a biosorbable airway splint with a 3D printer. First, he scanned Kaiba’s trachea and bronchus. With this scanner, he made a 3D establishment of the baby’s airways. Once the prosthesis was created, it was fit in Kaiba’s trachea. Now, Kaiba is 20 months and no longer suffers from respiratory deficiencies. 

3D printed airway splint is perfectly adapted to the patient, and moreover it doesn't need an operation to take it off because it is bioresorbable.  It’s cheaper and easier to make than handmade metal-framed prosthesis.

Once again, this story is the perfect illustration of the idea that 3D printing is a technology full of future promise, especially in the medical sector.

Want to learn more? : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O82nC9ro6Io

Sources: http://www.journaldelascience.fr/sante/revue-presse/prothese-tracheale-impression-3d-sauve-enfant-3096, http://www.upi.com/blog/2013/05/23/Doctors-3D-print-emergency-airway-tube-save-babys-life/8781369332039/