THE APPLICATION OF RAPID PROTOTYPING (RP) IN THE MEDICAL AREA: PROCESS AND CLINICAL BENEFITS 

Rogério Gondak e Maurício Gondak  


Resumo: The application of computation and manufacturing methods on diagnosis and treatment of complex surgical cases are, sometimes, decisive for clinical success. The use of Rapid Prototyping (RP) in medical area has allowed to obtain tridimensional models that represent the exact anatomic structure of the patient. The main systems are: Stereolithography (SL), Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) and Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM). Surgeons are using biomodels to plan surgeries, diagnose diseases and simulate surgeries. The aim this work is describe the main systems and show their benefits in clinical cases.