Serious forestry accident

10-year-old receives skullcap from 3D printer

At Salzburg University Hospital, an artificial skullcap was built using the in-house 3D printer.

(Bild: APA/SALK/WOLFGANG F†RWEGER)

At the end of last year, a boy suffered life-threatening injuries in a forestry accident. Part of his skull was shattered by a piece of metal. The doctors at Salzburg University Hospital have now given the ten-year-old a new skullcap using the in-house 3D printer.

It was December 28, 2023, when ten-year-old Felix was doing woodwork at Ulrichshögl in Ainring, Bavaria, together with his younger brother Simon and their father and grandfather. What was initially fun ended in disaster.

A steel cable breaks, a four to five centimeter rope clamp comes loose and is thrown against the boy's head. The metal part breaks through the top of the skull and gets stuck. The father first tries to stop the bleeding and makes an emergency call. He then takes the boy out of the forest on a quad bike with a trailer to a meadow, where they wait for the emergency services. Felix - still conscious - is given an anesthetic by the emergency doctor and flown by helicopter to Salzburg University Hospital.

From left: neurosurgeon Johannes Pöppe, Felix (10), dad Andreas H., brother Simon (8), mom Monika H., pediatric neurosurgeon Matthias Krause, CEO Roman Metzger and Werner Wurm, head of the 3D printing lab

(Bild: SALK/Leon Bernhofer)

The boy arrives in the trauma room, a CT scan shows: The bony roof of the skull is partially shattered. In an initial four-hour operation, two pediatric surgeons and a neurosurgeon remove the metal part and many bone fragments from Felix's brain, insert an intracranial pressure probe and provisionally close the skull. The child is then admitted to the intensive care unit.

+1

Fotos

"The first period is particularly delicate. The brain swells, something could become inflamed, post-operative bleeding and disorders could occur," says Roman Metzger, Head of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine at Salzburg University Hospital. The parents are not even allowed to stroke their son at the beginning because they want to avoid any stimulus to the brain. They worried about their son Felix for a long time ...

The first period is particularly delicate. The brain swells, something could become inflamed, post-operative bleeding and disorders could occur.

Roman Metzger, Vorstand der Uniklinik Salzburg

It is clear that a large part of the top of the skull is missing. But a groundbreaking new technology has been possible at the University Hospital since September 2023: replacement parts can be produced in-house using a 3D printer. The material used is a type of plastic that is not rejected by the body.

In Felix's case, we worked with the surgeons to design and print a customized implant within five days.

Werner Wurm, Leiter des 3D-Labors der Klinik

"In Felix's case, we worked with the surgeons to design and print a customized implant within five days," says Werner Wurm, head of the 3D laboratory. On January 17, the time had finally come. Felix was operated on again for almost three hours and the implant fitted to within half a millimeter.

Today, just five weeks after his accident, Felix is discharged from hospital. "At the beginning, we were talking about months," says his mother. His greatest wish now is to celebrate New Year's Eve with his best friends, he says.