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3D printing helps with intricate foot surgery

Author: Oliver Wilkinson, Posted: Wednesday, 22nd June 2022, 09:00

I recently had to treat a young whippet with a very wobbly foot! The poor dog had torn the ligaments on the outside of its foot so when it tried to weight bear the foot buckled and bent inwards at an unnatural angle.

A CT scan revealed that the small bones of the ankle were undamaged so the solution was to place a small plate across the damaged area to provide the necessary stability.

Placing a plate accurately requires a lot of bending and contouring

However, the skin in this area is quite limited and the bones of the foot are small and quite irregularly shaped, so placing a plate accurately requires a lot of bending and contouring to sit perfectly.

The solution was to use our CT images to 3D print the dog’s foot prior to surgery. This allowed me to mold the plate prior to the operation and align it perfectly with all the small bones.

I’m glad to say the surgery was a success and now our patient has a perfectly straight foot once more!

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3D printing helps with intricate foot surgery

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