How are 3D-printed eyes made?
Doctors at Moorfields Eye Hospital are using 3D-printed eyes as part of a clinical trial. Patients first have a scan of their eye socket taken to build a digital map of the area. Their good eye is also scanned to ensure it is a perfect match. The digital maps of the eye are then sent to Germany where they are made by a 3D-printing machine in two and a half hours. The results are posted back to London where the hospital applies the finishing touches and fits the eye. Doctors say this could halve waiting times for patients. It currently takes about six weeks for a patient to have a prosthetic eye fitted. A 3D printed eye takes just two-and-a-half hours to print. Some 60,000 people in the UK need prosthetic eyes.
An NHS patient will today become the first in the world to have a 3D-printed eye fitted as part of a trial. Steve Verze, from Hackney in London, lost his left eye in his 20s and has been using prosthetics — which need to be replaced every five years — ever since. While the 3D printed version won’t restore vision in his left eye, he hopes it will bring back some of his confidence. Doctors at the hospital are offering patients 3D-printed eyes as part of a clinical trial, which they say could halve waiting times for prosthetics.
Read more here (original source of the news): https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-10241969/British-man-patient-world-3D-printed-eyeball-NHS-hospital-London.html#v-1663552725106537512
