3-D Printed Skull Successfully Implanted In Woman 132
First time accepted submitter djhaskin987 (2147470) writes "The first successful implantation of a 3-D printed skull has taken place in the Netherlands, according to NBC news: 'Doctors in the Netherlands report that they have for the first time successfully replaced most of a human's skull with a 3-D printed plastic one — and likely saved a woman's life in the process. The 23-hour surgery took place three months ago at University Medical Center Utrecht. The hospital announced details of the groundbreaking operation this week and said the patient, a 22-year-old woman, is doing just fine."
Plastic Skull? (Score:2, Informative)
The advantage (Score:2, Informative)
Titanium very often contains nickel to harden hit, about 4% of people can get pretty severe allergic reactions over an extended period of time.
the advantage of composites, is that they're easier and safer to replace with less harm to the soft tissue surrounding it.
Re:Shock waves (Score:5, Informative)
Wrong. In discharging a gun, the bullet is given much more [yahoo.com] kinetic energy [wikipedia.org] than the gun, due to the disparity in masses. This follows from conservation of momentum, and the definition of kinetic energy.
This is why an armoured soldier can still be injured through his body armour, despite the armour stopping the bullet, whereas the shooter's shoulder is just fine.