(ANSA) - Florence, October 22 - Doctors at Florence's Meyer
hospital said Tuesday that they have used 3D printing techniques
to construct an external ear for a child.
The patient is a 13-year-old boy who was born with no
external ears because of a severe form of microtia, a congenital
deformity in which the pinna is underdeveloped.
Plastic surgeons used the boy's costal cartilage to create an
ear using 3D printing.
Doctors are planning to do a similar operation for the other
ear.
Child's ear constructed with 3D printing
13-year-old born without external ears due to microtia