RENSHAPE® SL MODELS AID SURGICAL SEPARATION OF EGYPTIAN CONJOINED TWINS
23 December 2003 - Huntsman Advanced Materials

During a year of planning, a team of surgeons relied on a series of three- dimensional SL models of the twins’ anatomies to prepare for virtually every aspect of the 34-hour surgery.

Many of the models were built from a unique, selectively colourable, medical-grade
stereolithography material known as RenShape®TM SL Y-C 9300 supplied by
RenShapeTMSolutions, part of Huntsman Advanced Materials.

The photopolymer allowed Medical Modeling LLC, Golden, Colorado, to use MRI and CT scans done on Ahmed and Mohamed Ibrahim to build intricate models including clear skull sections featuring red-tinted areas that mapped the maze of blood vessels shared by the twins.

According to Andy Christensen, president of Medical Modeling, “Several dozen models were made of the twins’ bones, skin, brains and vasculature for use by Ahmed and Mohamed’s world-class team of surgeons throughout a year of intensive surgical preparation.”

Models made from RenShape SL Y-C 9300 photopolymer conform to FDAapproved
USP 23 Class VI biocompatibility tests, are sterilisable and exhibit outstanding
accuracy.

Moreover, the SL material produces models that are durable enough to withstand ongoing handling over extended periods of time by surgeons and other medical team members.

Yvonne Myers, SL Marketing Manager, RenShape Solutions adds, “Innovative RenShape SL materials are used worldwide for a diverse range of modelling applications. However, as the only manufacturer of medical-grade SL materials, RenShape Solutions has the rewarding opportunity to offer products that have a direct impact on human life. We are very pleased and proud to have played a role in the impressive surgery that separated Ahmed and Mohamed.”

Now in post-operative recovery, the twins are making gradual progress.

Stereolithography is a process that uses a CAD-driven laser in combination with a vat of liquid photopolymer. As the laser-light traces individual cross-sections of a design on the surface of the light-curable plastic, the material hardens. A platform suspended in the vat drops down a fraction of a millimetre and the laser light traces the next cross-section. The process is repeated, curing layer after layer of photopolymer, until a three-dimensional model is produced.

More News:
  • For December 2003
  • From Huntsman Advanced Materials
  • For General