By LIn Yen-tung and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writerA titanium alloy has been grafted into a patient’s face using minimally invasive incision, surgical navigation and 3D printing techniques, Taipei Veterans General Hospital said on Monday. The procedure left almost no scars on the patient’s face, and the alloy follows their facial contours and does not impair vision, the hospital’s oral and maxillofacial surgeon Wu Cheng-hsien (吳政憲) said. Traditional methods would involve surgical incisions on the face to remove the cyst and the use of bone tissue from the calf to fill the gap left by the operation, Wu said. Su was not the first patient to undergo the procedure that combines the three techniques, Wu said. In addition to Su and Chen, there were three other cases in which the hospital’s doctors conducted surgery combining the three methods, Wu said.

Source: Taipei Times March 19, 2018 15:56 UTC