Normal and Fibrotic Cardiac Myocardium Tissue Identified and Reproduced in Anatomically Accurate 3D for Perioperative Usage

Peri-operative stage of a surgery is critical as information about the surgical processes must be clearly interpreted by surgeons. Medical teaching models are commonly used to explain to patients details about the procedure before the surgery. However these teaching models are generic, not patient specific and not anatomically accurate and also lack visual understanding of certain aspects of the diseased heart, such as fibrosis on the muscular tissues of the heart. A method in producing a patient specific and anatomically accurate rapid prototype biomodel of the heart is described. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans obtained from a patient with fibrotic myocardium were processed using algorithms and printed on a rapid prototyping apparatus to generate a physical three dimensional (3D) biomodel. A normal 3D cardiac biomodel was also generated from an healthy individual. These biomodels were opinionated positively in a surgical congress and effort is currently underway to create an automated process flow so that in future each patient can have their own biomodels prior to surgical treatment to aid surgeons in planning and discussion.