Open Sourcing Surgery

I was thinking..

if anyone would like to have a medical/dental instrument 3d printed and/or customized, you can send me which instrument (with specs if possible) so i can make a 3d model to be tested.

This week i'll start printing a full scale model of the retractor and test it's capabilities. Also adding a raspberry pi 3 model B to achieve automation by wifi communication and Octoprint.

First test print scaled 50%. The printer needs still a lot of calibration

It took a lot of time and effort, but i started printing, for now it's only calibration cubes, but soon the first retractor.

Here is a pic of my repstrap

almost done with the 3d printer, getting there

The first stage of the project is to design, print and test a surgical retractor. Second stage will be a needle driver and dissection clamps (suture kit). Third stage will be testing sterilization methods (ethylene oxide or Sterrad), bacterial growth, allergies and different materials (like PLA or ABS).

I am expecting the hotend and extruder to arrive next week. If everything goes well i could be printing a test retractor the week after

I don't know why i remembered today my days in a public hospital's emergency room (a few years ago), there were no suture kits (actually there was one, reserved for face wounds), consisting of needle driver and dissection pliers. The other wounds were sutured with an intramuscular injection needle and linen threads (i don't know the exact translation, it is an outdated - obsolete (but really cheap) type of suture).

One updated goal of this project is to provide to cheap and available suture kits for hospitals and health providers with limited resources (or just everyone for that matter).

UPDATE: i finished the XYZ axes of my scraps made 3d printer, now i am improving and calibrating (as plotter) them. I'll try next week to get the hotend and extruder (the only thing i am planning to buy). I hope i'll have a functional printer within 2 or 3 weeks.

Today i saw online an antibacterial 3d printing filament, i didn't know about it, but it could be a great improvement for the project.