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Dubai is well-known to the world for its lavish malls, many hotels and the Dubai festival but do you know that it’s slowly becoming the 3d printing hub of the world. UAE government has laid down an extensive plan to transform its economy from being oil based to a technology hub which inspires innovation and scientific studies. UAE government calls it the ‘3D Printing Strategy’ which was launched this year by his Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, according to which the government will focus on three major sectors: construction, medical products and consumer products


The 3D Printing Strategy which is now in its implementation phase has already bearing fruits. We have heard about the 3D Printed office space which is being hailed as a modern marvel, now its time to tell you about some wonderful work being done with the help of Medical 3D Printing.

With a little help of 3D Printing a Team of doctors from Dubai has successfully removed a tumour from the kidney of a 42-year-old Palestinian woman who now permanently lives in UAE.

Doctors at Dubai Hospital performed a kidney surgery using 3-D technology, making the hospital the first in the MENA region to use this technology for kidney surgery. Courtesy Dubai Health Authority

The patient had severe abdominal pain for which the doctors did the test and found a 4 inch tumour inside the kidney, right next to the renal artery. Under normal medical procedures the cure for such disease was that the doctors would have to remove the kidney to save the life of the patient, however when we talk about 3d printing we are talking about out of the box solutions.

The doctors at the Dubai hospital had access to best in the class 3d printing technologies hence they could make high resolution colour print of the patients kidney with the help of MRI data. This assisted team of doctor’s which was led by Dr Yaser Al Saeedi to evaluate the patient’s kidney in extreme detail and were able to map out a strategy to remove the tumour without harming the healthy tissues.

Dr Saeedi explained in a press brief “With 3D printing and knowing exactly how to approach the tumour and how to remove it, it took us an hour less [than normal]. We’ve done it in three hours exact. The removal of the lesion itself took us only 28 minutes.”

The surgery was performed successfully on 14th December; the patient is now recuperating from the surgery at the hospital. The doctors have decided that the patient can be discharged soon.

Ecstatic at the result of this surgery Humaid Al Qutami, DHA director-general said “Using 3D technology for surgeries and other medical purposes is the future. We are currently working on developing regulations for 3D printing for patients and the medical sector in Dubai…We are also looking at training doctors and health-care professionals on the use of this technology.”

Tags: 3D Printing

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