By Patrick Rocchio
A young girl from Flushing has received a new prosthetic hand that was developed using some of the latest in 3D printing technology.
Doctors at Jacobi Medical Center in Morris Park in the Bronx created the custom-fitting hand for Yujing He, 13. After being fitted with the prosthetic hand, a first for the hospital, she is now able to move the fingers on her left hand for basic functions.
Yujing seemed very happy with her new hand, saying she was going through a period of adjustment.
“I feel more confident and happier to have this new hand,” she said through a translator. “I think it is a miracle that I can try to do some things that I could not do without this hand.”
3D printing involves molding narrow pieces of plastic together to create a three dimensional image to the specifications created in a computer model, a hospital spokesman explained.
These kinds of prosthetics are ideal for patients who are still growing, because they can be adjusted with relative ease, her doctors said.
The recently completed operation was performed in collaboration with Montefiore’s podiatrydepartment, where one of He’s doctors, Dr. Kyle Silva, works.
Jacobi plastic surgeon and Burn Fellow Dr. Cesar Colasante led the medical center’s part of the effort, and said he has been working with 3D printing for about 15 years.
Using 3D printing can reduce the cost of a prosthetic hand from thousands of dollars to as little as $30, and adjustments can be made within a day, said Colasante.
“She is going to continue growing and she is going to outgrow her prosthesis within a year,” he said, adding that the low cost for the hospital allows it to go ahead with operations quickly rather than waiting months for Medicaid to approve a procedure.
“It makes for a more personalized experience,” said Colasante, who also said that the possibilities for using the technology have the potential for exponential growth.
Dr. Silva believes that 3D printing will continue to be important in the development of models for pre-surgery planning to better understand the reaction of the body, for medical education or to map out a traumatic brain injury in three dimensions.
This type of printing is getting better and better, with new kinds of plastic becoming available.
“It is fascinating technology,” Silva said, adding that “the technology keeps getting better every day.”
Yujing developed amniotic band syndrome, a condition that previously made it impossible to move her fingers, when she was about 3 years old, her mother, Qiumin Lai, said.
According to her doctors, she is now able to fully use her left hand to grip things like water bottles. This was not possible before the surgery.
