Objective: Opportunities for developing procedural skills are progressively rare. Therefore, sophisticated educational tools are highly warranted.
Methods: This study compared stereolithography and 3-dimensional printing for simulating cerebral aneurysm surgery. The latter jets multiple materials simultaneously and thus has the ability to print assemblies of multiple materials with different features. The authors created the solid skull and the cerebral vessels in different materials to simulate the real aneurysm when clipped.
Results: Precise plastic replicas of complex anatomical data provide intuitive tactile views that can be scrutinized from any perspective. Hollowed out vessel sections allow serial clipping efforts, evaluation of different clips, and clip positions. The models can be used for accurate prediction of vascular anatomy, for optimization of teaching surgical skills, for advanced procedural competency training, and for patient counseling.
Conclusion: Simultaneous 3-dimensional printing is the most promising rapid prototyping technique to produce biomodels that meet the high demands of neurovascular surgery.