Personal Injury Solicitors

Plastic surgeons at the Welsh centre for Burns and Plastic Surgery at Morriston Hospital in Swansea are working with engineers and scientists to develop for the first time 3-D printed tissue made from human cells.

3-D printing has previously been used to manufacture prosthetics and implants from materials like plastic or titanium. However, bio-printing – using human cells instead of manmade material – is a very new science, say the researchers.

The team at Swansea hopes that within a few years, patients who have lost all or part of their ear or nose through trauma or cancer could have reconstruction using new tissue grown from their own cells.

The team has already succeeded in bio-printing small pellets of living tissue, showing that the delicate cells can survive the 3-D printing process.

They have also developed a jelly-like support structure, which can be used as the ink for printing the intricate shape of an ear or nose – and, critically, is compatible with human cells.

The researchers say the next stage is to blend the jelly and cartilage cells together and 3-D print them into bespoke tissue for reconstructive surgery.

The resulting body part will need to be strong enough to withstand the surgical procedure to attach it to the patient, but will also have to be able to survive indefinitely as healthy tissue following the procedure.

This tissue engineering process is ongoing, but it is anticipated that surgical trials could begin in as little as three to four years’ time.

Consultant Plastic Surgeon and Chair in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Swansea University Medical School, Professor Iain Whitaker, is leading the team and said:

“We want to try and help people who were born with defects – or who have lost parts of their ear or nose as a result of trauma or cancer.

“We are using human cells – growing them up to combine them with a printable material, 3-D print them and implant them into the human body.

“Lots of people have heard about 3-D printing, which is becoming more mainstream – and you can actually buy 3-D printers on the Internet, to print plastics or metals.

“But we are working on the next stage – 3-D bio-printing, which is printing living tissues, living structures.

“This work is at the relatively early stages of development and requires combining many areas of expertise – but we already have proof of concept that human cells can survive within the printable structures we’ve made so far and will survive the printing process.

“We’re currently working on growing up large numbers of cells in order to print larger constructs and undertake a number of tests to ensure it will be stable enough to be used to implant into a patient, he added.

“It’s very difficult to give a time frame on any medical discovery which is based on scientific principles – but I would say that in two to three years, we should be in a position to trial with animals and within a year after that, pending ethical approval, we should be in a position to trial this in humans.”

Duncan Lewis Personal Injury Solicitors – No win no fee Oral and Maxillofacial Injury Claims

Duncan Lewis personal injury solicitors can advise those who have suffered oral or maxillofacial injury as a result of negligence on how to make a no win no fee claim for compensation, including claims relating to:

• Accidents at work
• Animal attacks
• Burns
• Children’s accidents
• Criminal injuries
• Domestic violence
• Holiday Accidents
• Military accidents/Claims against MoD
• Public liability claims
• Road traffic accidents
• Sports accidents.

Duncan Lewis can also advise in cases involving medical negligence leading to oral or maxillofacial injury, including misdiagnosis, failure to diagnose, failure to treat, delay in diagnosis/treatment, failure to refer, surgical errors, hospital-acquired infection, cancer misdiagnosis, meningitis misdiagnosis, sepsis misdiagnosis and dental negligence.

Personal injury claims usually have to be made within three years of injury or within three years of when negligence leading to injury became evident.

For expert and sympathetic legal advice on no win no fee Oral and Maxillofacial Injury Claims, contact Duncan Lewis personal injury solicitors on 0333 772 0409.