Chinese infant receives world's first 3D-printed cranium reconstruction

A toddler in central China's Hunan Province has become the first person in the world to have her cranium successfully reconstructed with the help of 3D printing technology.

Three-year-old Han Han suffers from congenital hydrocephalus, a condition that causes an abnormal amount of fluid to build up in the brain. This condition has left her bedridden, as her neck cannot support the weight of her head, which has grown to four times its normal size.

But surgeons at Hunan's Second People's Hospital based in the city of Changsha are trying to fight the condition's effects with a 3D-printed skull implant.

They used 3D printers to create a model of the girl's skull, which they then used to design a titanium mesh to replace Han Han's cerebral cranium, otherwise known as the part of the skull that protects the brain.

The surgeons removed a portion of her skull and put the mesh in place in a 17-hour operation that ended at about 2:20 a.m. Wednesday.

Doctors had to drain 7.5 liters of fluid from the girl's head during the operation, a procedure which took four hours.

They left the facial cranium intact as a base in order to secure the titanium mesh.

The girl is still in intensive care following her operation. Endi