The Clinical Potentials of 3D Printing in Endoscopic Reconstruction of the Skull Base

Three-dimensional (3D) printing is an additive manufacturing technology that has undergone rapid development since its advent in the 1980s. 3D printing allows engineers and health care professionals to design, customize, and produce complex structures with high accuracy. Currently, the applications of 3D printing predominantly include patient specific surgical models for preoperative planning, intraoperative surgical cutting guides, educational models for patient education and surgical simulation, and medical devices such as prosthetics or wearable devices. Additionally, tissue engineering methodologies are being developed that are either scaffold based or bioprinted. Tissue scaffolds are printed structures that precisely match patient-specific anatomical features and can be seeded with living cells for tissue growth. Bioprinting refers to 3D printing with cells suspended in hydrogel or other substrates that can be printed directly and allows for the creation of complex microarchitecture.