Surgeons use 3D-printed model of prostate in pioneering operation

Surgeons have for the first time in the NHS used a 3D-printed copy of a patient’s prostate to help them remove the cancerous gland.

They held the replica prostate in their hands as they used a £2 million robot to cut it free, ensuring they excised the tumour but minimised the risk of causing impotence and incontinence.

The procedure is the latest at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS trust using 3D printing. Last November, a team of doctors used the technique during the transplant of a kidney from a father into his three-year-old daughter.

Professor Prokar Dasgupta, who performed the prostate operation at Guy’s Hospital, said the technology could prove revolutionary. The hospital’s da Vinci Xi robots perform about 300 such operations a year, but it means surgeons lose their sense of touch.

The replica was made in a laboratory at St Thomas’s Hospital from MRI scan measurements and took 12 hours to produce, at a cost of between £150 and £200.

The model revealed the prostate was smooth on one side, allowing Professor Dasgupta to spare a nerve bundle. “These bundles are important to the patient,” he said.

“They go to the penis and help with the recovery of erections. Using this 3D model, we can plan surgery better, we can counsel the patient better and we hope to be able to remove the cancer successfully. If I didn’t have this, there would be an element of guesswork.”

He said the replica was “very realistic” and “remarkably accurate” and added: “This retains the sense of touch. I can ‘feel’ the tumour without putting my hand inside the patient.

"There is a very big tumour. This tumour is also very close to the muscle that keeps the man dry [the sphincter], so I know exactly where to cut.

“It shows you the power of MRI, it shows you the power of this software, it shows you the power of 3D printing. If it proves to be as useful as it seems, I think it has a great future.”

The patient, 65, a GP, discovered he had a large tumour after a CT scan in India. “He had absolutely no idea this thing was growing inside him,” said Professor Dasgupta.