When Dr. Jennifer Warnock, orthopedic surgeon in the OSU Veterinary Teaching Hospital, has a complex surgery ahead, she often uses 3-D models of her patient’s bones to help plan the procedure.
Thanks to a generous donation from Steve and Rebecca Camden, Dr. Warnock can now get those models from a laboratory down the hall, and they cost $20 instead of $200.
Dr. Susanne Stieger-Vanegas is OSU’s Camden Endowed Professor, and she recently purchased a Stratasys 3-D printer. She is working with Dr. Warnock to study the best way to use the hospital’s 64-slice, high-speed CT to generate the data needed for optimal models. “I can tweak the details in the model, by taking slices [on the CT] from one-quarter millimeter to two millimeters,” she says, “but there is a point at which it is too fine.”
Dr. Stieger-Vanegas is also looking at creating models that can be sawn into peices by Dr. Warnock.