2A — Friday, October 16, 2015
News
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

TUESDAY:

Campus Voices

THURSDAY:
Twitter Talk

FRIDAY:

Photos of the Week

WEDNESDAY:

In Other Ivory Towers

MONDAY:

This Week in History

LEFT: Coach Jim Harbaugh’s hat 

falls over his eyes as yells at the 

referees duing Saturday’s 38-0 shut 

out of Northwestern. (LUNA ANNA 

ARCHEY/Daily)

RIGHT: LSA sophomore Nick Zoppi 

helps LSA senior Luke Tobeler hose off 

after their team, the Flying Eagles, win 

the 82nd annual Mud Bowl outside the 

former Sigma Alpha Epsilon house on 

Saturday. (ANDREW COHEN/Daily)

NEED MORE 
PHOTOS?

See more Photos of the 
Week on our website, 
michigandaily.com.

3D-printed models help doctors determine 
appropriate surgical procedures for patients

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‘U’ doctors model 
head of 30-week-

old fetus 

BY TOM MCBRIEN

Daily Staff Reporter

A team of University doctors 

held Conan Thompson’s head, 
trying to decide whether or not 
he would need drastic surgery to 
allow him to breathe. This was 
no normal consultation, however, 
because Conan was no normal 
patient: He was a 30-week-old 
fetus still inside his mother’s 
womb.

In the doctors’ hands were 

3D-printed models of Conan’s 
head, the first 3D-printed models 
of a fetal head used to inform a 
surgical decision. With the accu-
rate physical model, the doctors 
were able to see that their patient 
could be born through a Caesarian 
section instead of a riskier surgical 
procedure.

Conan’s 
mother, 
Megan 

Thompson, had been referred to 
C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital after 
an ultrasound showed a potentially 
dangerous lump on Conan’s face.

“What we worried was that 

when he was born, the lump 
would cover his nose and mouth 
and prevent him from being able 

to breathe,” said Kyle VanKoever-
ing, a resident in the University 
Hospital’s Department of Otolar-
yngology.

When they first saw Conan’s 

case, doctors worried they might 
have to perform an ex utero intra-
partum treatment procedure, or 
EXIT, a complicated procedure 
that involves operating on the 
baby after it has been delivered but 
before the umbilical cord is cut. 
This process is more dangerous 
and more expensive than tradi-
tional births.

The doctors were concerned 

about the lump, but couldn’t tell 
from the fuzzy ultrasound wheth-
er or not it warranted an EXIT 
procedure. The team decided to 
try an MRI scan, since it would 
give them a clearer picture than 
the ultrasound. MRI machines 
take many images of a subject in 
“slices” about two millimeters 
apart. However, VanKoevering 
said, even an MRI wasn’t enough 
in this case.

“When you look at an MRI, you 

look at a stack of two-dimensional 
pictures,” VanKoevering said. “And 
your brain basically compiles that 
stack into a three-dimensional pro-
file where each picture is separated 
by a millimeter or three millime-
ters. But it’s hard to envision the 
detailed anatomy of a tiny infant 
when the MRI isn’t too clear.”

Normally, doctors would pre-

pare what was necessary for an 
EXIT procedure at this point. But 
Glenn Green, associate professor 
of otolaryngology, had another 
idea.

“And so Dr. Green called me one 

night and said, ‘Kyle, do you think 
we could take a special MRI scan 
and make a 3D model from it?’ ” 
VanKoevering said. “And I said, 
‘Well, I don’t know that it’s ever 
been done in a fetus before like 
this…Let’s try it.’ ”

VanKoevering, 
who 
gradu-

ated with a biomedical engineer-
ing degree from the University in 
2007, used computer programs 
to construct a 3D digital model of 
Conan’s head based on MRI imag-
es. He explained that, after the 
modeling, the printing was easy.

“We called a 3D printer in Ann 

Arbor — a local company called 
Thingsmiths — and we asked if 
they would be willing to print 
these models. Of course, we had 
a very short timeframe because 
the kid’s delivery was coming up 
very soon and we were really not 
clear yet on what we wanted to 
do. So we called them and they 
said, ‘Yeah, we can get these on 
the printers tonight and they’ll be 
ready tomorrow night.’ It was less 
than a 24-hour turnaround. These 
things can literally be printed 
overnight.”

The doctors soon had multiple 

models of Conan’s head in their 
hands. Some were opaque to show 
details about the lump, while oth-
ers were clear to show information 
about the bones and deeper struc-
tural aspects of Conan’s face. With 
this new information, they were 
able to see that the lump would not 
pose a grave risk.

VanKoevering said this is just 

one example of 3D printing’s 
increasing impact on medicine. 
Similar techniques could be used 
for other complex surgeries such 
as removing large tumors and 
intricate heart procedures.

“3D printing is certainly a rap-

idly evolving field in medicine 
because it allows such versatility in 
designing models and potentially 
implants to reflect the unique anat-
omy that each patient has,” he said. 
“So I think this is an area of medi-
cine that will continue to evolve 
rapidly over the next five years, and 
I’m excited to see how it goes.” 

This is not the first time Univer-

sity doctors have used 3D print-
ing as a medical tool. In 2013, two 
members of the team — Green 
and Scott Hollister, professor 
of biochemical and mechanical 
engineering — were honored by 
Popular Mechanics for 3D print-
ing a biodegradable splint used to 
save the life of a two-year-old with 
breathing problems.

INTERNATIONAL
 AT MICHIGAN

KEY (# of employees, students and 

0-150
150-
705
(Eu-

6,571
(Asia)

NORTH AFRICA AND 

THE MIDDLE EAST

AUSTRALIA AND 

THE PACIFIC

ASIA

EUROPE

SUB-SAHARAN 

AFRICA

NORTH AMERICA

LATIN AMERICA

Claudio Vilas Boas Favero
Engineering GSI 
Country of Origin: Brazil
Language: Portuguese

Luis Felipe Sfeir-Younis
Professor of Sociology 
Country of Origin: Chile
Language: Spanish

Özge Savas
Psychology and Women’s 
Studies GSI 
Country of Origin: Turkey
Language: Turkish

Jin Ge
Mechanical Engineering 
GSI
Country of Origin: China
Language: Chinese

“In my experience especial-

ly, the problems in communication of pro-
fessors and GSIs who are not native speak-
ers of English begins with the expressions. 
A student, or even people in general, expect 
certain things to be expressed in a certain 
way. So when we, non-native speakers, 
say something that a student understands, 
but we don’t express it in the way that they 
want to hear - or in the way that they want 
to hear even if they just subconsciously 
don’t want to hear it that way - the student 
wants it to be said a different way.”

“I feel like when they see 
me and when I speak that they think, in 
some form, that I am a second-class profes-
sor. At least at first. That they did not get the 
right professor, the one that is blonde with 
blue eyes who pronounces words correctly. 
It could be that in the next half hour that 
changes because I have good reviews. But 
it’s that initial reaction. It is always a reac-
tion that they wish I was a different profes-
sor, one that speaks in English and that is 
really an American, despite the fact that I 
really am a citizen.” 

“When I observe an American GSI in-
teracting with their student I envy their 
relationship knowing full well that I will 
never achieve a connection so natural with 
my own students. Even though I am aware 
that everyone here is coming from such 
different backgrounds, they are sharing a 
common language and culture. Since the 
students share a common culture with the 
American GSI’s, they may move on to a 
completely different conversation and be-
come much more like friends. I always end 
up feeling like there is an invisible wall 
between me and my students.”

“My feeling is if there’s an Asian GSI or pro-
fessor, in the first five minutes when they 
stand in front of the class, If they are able 
to express their way of thinking from their 
heart and express their logic in a way that 
people understand, then the atmosphere 
will be very good and there’s not much of 
a difference. But if in those five minutes at 
the start, their accent is really strong and 
no one can understand, their logic is bad 
and people don’t understand, ... then the 
atmosphere in the class is – you can see all 
kinds of reactions.”

From 1A
In Fall 2014, there 
were 1,308 interna-
tional employees at the 
University and 5,990 
international students, 
including 4,052 gradu-
ate students, many 
who are employed 
as graduate student 
instructors. There 
were also 512 visiting 
scholars who come to 
the University for vari-
ous reasons -- to teach, 
conduct research and 
more. This map shows 
a regional breakdown 
of international em-
ployees, students and 
visiting scholars.

See the video package at 
magnify.michigandaily.
us/video/teaching-in-
translation/

Designed by Carolyn Gearig
Source: The International Center

