3D printed PLA of gallbladder for virtual surgery planning

Three-Dimensional Printing (3DP) technology using Polylactic Acid (PLA) has been applied in numerous medical applications and successfully improved surgical procedures. Unfortunately, the quality of the transferring process from scanning the human organ to the production of organ prototypes remain inaccurate and inconsistent. This study aims to develop and to validate the sequencing process of designing and producing prototyping models of a human internal organ as a virtual tool to reduce the possibility of failures in the surgery. The image processing steps of volume rendering, segmentation, and refinement followed by prototype production with ratio 1:1 applied to the three-dimensional scanning imaginary data of normal and abnormal patients. The validation techniques consist of qualitative and quantitative methods. The qualitative approach reveals that the 3DP using PLA could enhance the existing modality to visualize the real condition of the patient. The quantitative approach shows that the length of normal and abnormal organ prototypes respectively was 7.5 cm and 13.5 cm. The volume from three different formats of the human organ model was 33.790 cm³ in DICOM format, 34.592 cm³ in STL format, and 35.000 cm³ in prints. The validation techniques conclude that the PLA prototypes of the human internal organ are similar to the imaging data and satisfying for virtual surgical planning.