3-D printing comes to the hospital

Dr. Albert Woo held the tiny skull in his hands, turning it over and studying its imperfections. There was too much bone around the nose. The right eye socket was out of place. The reconstructive facial surgery would have to protect the tear ducts and delicate structures of the eye. Woo and a colleague planned out the operation using the replica created with a 3-D printer. The next morning, when they opened up the skull of 5-year-old Myah McWilliams, they already knew what to do. "If I'm going to take a child to the operating room, I want to know that it counts," Woo said.