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Application of three-dimensional reconstruction and printing as an elective course for undergraduate medical students: an exploratory trial

  • Teaching Anatomy
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Abstract

Background

Medical three-dimensional (3D) digital reconstruction and printing have become common tools in medicine, but few undergraduate medical students understand its whole process and teaching and clinical application. Therefore, we designed an elective course of 3D reconstruction and printing for students and studied its significance and practicability.

Methods

Thirty undergraduate medical students in their second-year of study volunteered to participate in the course. The course started with three lessons on the theory of 3D digital reconstruction and printing in medicine. The students were then randomly divided into ten groups. Each group randomly selected its own original data set, which could contain a series of 2D images including sectional anatomical images, histological images, CT and MRI. Amira software was used to segment the structures of interest, to 3D reconstruct them and to smooth and simplify the models. These models were 3D printed and post-processed. Finally, the 3D digital and printed models were scored, and the students produced brief reports of their work and knowledge acquisition and filled out an anonymous questionnaire about their study perceptions.

Results

All the students finished this course. The average score of the 30 students was 83.1 ± 2.7. This course stimulated the students' learning interest and satisfied them. It was helpful for undergraduate students to understand anatomical structures and their spatial relationship more deeply. Students understood the whole process of 3D reconstruction and printing and its teaching and clinical applications through this course.

Conclusion

It is significant and necessary to develop this course for undergraduate medical students.

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Funding

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31771324), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFC0106402), the Graduate Education and Teaching Reform Research Project of Chongqing (yjg183144) and the Military Youth Science Foundation of China (16QNP100).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Xiaoqin Zhang and Zhou Xu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Digital Medicine, School of Biomedical Engineering and Medical Imaging, Army Medical University (Third Military Medical University), Chongqing, 400038, China

    Xiaoqin Zhang, Zhou Xu, Liwen Tan, Ying Li, Li Liu, Na Chen, Shaoxiang Zhang, Chunling Wu & Yi Wu

  2. Tytgat Institute for Liver and Intestinal Research, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Wouter H. Lamers

Authors
  1. Xiaoqin Zhang
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  2. Zhou Xu
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  4. Ying Li
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  5. Li Liu
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  6. Na Chen
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  8. Wouter H. Lamers
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  9. Chunling Wu
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  10. Yi Wu
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Contributions

XZ: data analysis; manuscript writing. ZX: data collection; teaching. LT: teaching guidance. YL: provision of materials and literature search. LL: statistical expertise. NC: data collection. SZ: teaching guidance. WL: conception and design. CW: provision of materials. YW: course design; teaching.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yi Wu.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All CVH cadavers were enrolled in the body donation program of the CVH project, which follows the scientific and ethical rules of the Army Medical University (Third Military Medical University). The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Army Medical University (Third Military Medical University). Patient consent was provided for the use of their (anonymous) CT and MRI images. The histological section images were obtained in accordance with the Dutch regulations for the proper use of human and animal tissue for medical research purposes. The anonymous specimens, which belong to the historical collection of human embryos at the Department of Anatomy and Embryology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands, had been donated for scientific research. The Leiden collection was established in the 1950–1970s. In the Netherlands, the study of historical collections is exempt from approval by a medical ethics committee.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Zhang, X., Xu, Z., Tan, L. et al. Application of three-dimensional reconstruction and printing as an elective course for undergraduate medical students: an exploratory trial. Surg Radiol Anat 41, 1193–1204 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-019-02248-1

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