3D 'Printout' Device Keeps Very Ill Babies Breathing By Dennis Thompson

HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, April 29, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- An implant created with a 3D printer has saved the lives of three baby boys near death from a rare airway disease.

University of Michigan researchers are calling the implant a "4D" device because they successfully engineered it to adapt to the children's growth over time.

The boys -- from 3 months to 16 months old -- suffered from a condition called tracheobronchomalacia, which occurs when the airway walls are too weak and collapse during breathing.

"It's hard to convey how very sick these children were," said senior author Dr. Glenn Green, an associate professor specializing in pediatric otolaryngology.

The children had been in an intensive care unit for months, he said. Breathing tubes were implanted into their necks, and they were kept on ventilation under heavy sedation. One "was unable to have any food in his stomach without having cardiac arrest," Green said, and all required frequent resuscitation.

To save their lives, researchers designed an airway splint made of hollow, porous tubes shaped like the letter "C," said study co-author Scott Hollister, a professor of biomedical and mechanical engineering. Surgeons sutured the splints around the affected airways, essentially propping open the passages.

As the children grew, the thin splints flexed and allowed their airways to grow while staying open. "That splint will essentially give way and allow the airway to grow over time," Hollister said. The splints are made of a biomaterial that will dissolve as the airway becomes strong enough to stand open on its own.

The first boy to receive an airway splint, Kaiba Gionfriddo, now is 3 years old. The little Ohio boy turned blue soon after birth because his tiny lungs couldn't draw in enough air. He received his implant in 2012, at 3 months of age.

Kaiba's splint appears to have started dissolving away as intended, and doctors have scheduled removal of his breathing tube, Green said. He essentially is considered cured.

"The first time he was hospitalized, doctors told us he may not make it out," Kaiba's mom, April Gionfriddo, said. "It was scary knowing he was the first child to ever have this procedure, but it was our only choice and it saved his life."