Chinese farmer whose head was crushed will be fitted with 3D-printed skull

A farmer whose skull was crushed in a fall from the third storey of his home was due to undergo surgery to receive a titanium replacement, made using a 3D printer.

Doctors in Xian, in Shaanxi province, used the latest technology to print out a custom-made implant that will be inserted under the skin of the man, surnamed Hu, and attached to the bones of the 46-year-old’s skull.

If successful, the titanium mesh will restore the natural shape of the farmer’s skull.

The news comes just days after doctors in Beijing were able to insert a 3D-printed vertebra in a 12-year-old cancer patient’s spine.

The child’s vertebra had been assailed by a tumour, and the replacement part is made of a material that would allow new bone to grow into it.

Doctors at Peking University Hospital took five hours on the surgery – the first such procedure in the world.