At Tampa General Hospital, 3-D printers are removing guesswork for doctors and patients

When a patient with a gunshot wound to the face came through the Level 1 trauma center at Tampa General Hospital a few months ago, it was up to Dr. Joshua Elston to try to reconstruct what had been shattered. But putting the pieces back together after a traumatic injury can sometimes feel like trying to build a house without blueprints, said Elston, a plastic surgeon.