A group of students from the Faculty of Medical Bioengineering, the University of Medicine and Pharmacy ‘Grigore T.Popa’ in Iasi demonstrate that a picture is worth a thousand words, and the way we treat difficult medical cases can be changed with the help of a 3D printer, and, what’s more, lives can be saved from the intrauterine period.

The students from Iasi, participating in EUROINVENT 2025 – the European Exhibition of Creativity and Innovation, show that 3D ultrasound, an MRI or CT scan can help both doctors and parents to find out what the baby looks like in the womb.

‘We print 3D models from ultrasound, MRI and CT scans. We wanted to provide a much better visualization. When we are limited by 2D plane, we need to reach both the 3D plane and the physical plane, so we can simulate these cases. This is a first for Romania. There have been a few attempts, but at a certain point they plateaued. We are trying to go further, i.e. to make the printing method easier and more intuitive, so that there is not so much data processing and to make it more accessible,’ Cozmin Manea, a fourth-year student at the Faculty of Medical Bioengineering, told AGERPRES.

We all know that ‘inside’ we are not the same as on the outside, and science has shown that even images ‘have noise’ and can distort reality, so that sometimes doctors can find themselves with surprises when operating on someone. The students demonstrate that not only with 3D ultrasound, but also with 3D printers, a surgeon can see the true image of the patient’s anatomy, so that he can choose how to solve the problem before entering the operating room and putting his hand on the scalpel.

‘They can also be souvenirs for people who want to have a souvenir with their baby, but they can also be useful in fetal surgery, for example, when there are congenital cases that require surgery from the intrauterine life and the surgeon can intervene so that the defect can be corrected in the mother’s womb. The surgical part can be planned from the fetal period, so that nothing unexpected happens, and at the same time to shorten the time of surgery and increase the success of the operation,’ explained Cozmin Manea the role of 3D printed models.

Thus, says the future medical bioengineer, the risk of a failed operation is greatly reduced.

He and his colleagues from the Faculty of Medical Bioengineering involved in the project decided to take the ultrasound, put it into a specialized software, then processed the 3D model and printed it.

‘We have to process, because the ultrasound has a lot of noise in the background and in 3D printing a lot of unwanted elements appear. That’s why we need to process a little to make it printable and to give the shape we want to be able to understand what is there,’ said Cozmin Manea.

According to his colleagues, such complicated surgeries could be done not only in large university centers, but also in smaller hospitals around the country.

‘You need a bioengineer to process the data and the hospital to have a 3D printer. (…) Printing can be done quite quickly. This means that the patient comes today, is hospitalized, and the operation can be done tomorrow. If it’s an emergency. If a more extensive exploration is desired, it may take a week, depending on how the surgical team decides. Processing a CT can take up to 8 hours, a normal working day,’ says his colleague, Florin Bogdan Popa.

Students say such 3D printed models are also useful when doctors have complicated cases.

‘They can also be useful for other deformities or congenital problems such as, for example, the heart, where there are pathologies that occur one in 100,000 or one in a million. There may be cases where it is not possible to move the patient to a hospital where complicated surgery is performed and the surgeon does not have the necessary experience. And then we offer an approach in which it is possible to plan the surgical part and at the same time both the surgeon and the patient can visualize what is happening,’ said Florin Bogdan Popa.

The 3D printed model after a fetal ultrasound scan was presented by the students of the Faculty of Medical Bioengineering of UMF Iasi at EUROINVENT – European Exhibition of Creativity and Innovation, one of the most appreciated events in Europe in the field of invention, creativity and innovation.

More than 640 inventions, research projects and innovative applications from 37 countries are presented at the event, from various fields – engineering, medicine, agriculture, environment, applied arts, education. The event is aimed not only at specialists but also at the general public. Visitors can discover cutting-edge technologies and interact directly with the inventors, thus having the opportunity to better understand the role of research and science in everyday life.