Considering the Costs: Resin 3D Printing for a Temporal Bone Dissection Course.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Anatomical Modeling
• Surgical Simulation

Background:

• Cadaveric temporal bones (TBs) are essential for surgical simulation but are costly.
• High-fidelity resin 3D-printed TBs are recognized as viable alternatives.
• Limited data exists on the cost and time for in-house scaled production of these models.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of in-house 3D printing of resin temporal bone models.
• To determine the manufacturing costs and time required for producing these models for a dissection course.

Main Methods:

• Utilized an open-source library to select and edit a temporal bone model for 3D printing.
• Employed a resin 3D printer for scaled production of the temporal bone models.
• Calculated material costs and time investment for the manufacturing process.

Main Results:

• Successfully 3D-printed 60 resin temporal bone models.
• Achieved a low cost of $6.40 per model, totaling $384.10 for materials.
• Demonstrated that in-house production is substantially cheaper than acquiring cadaveric TBs ($400-$700 each).

Conclusions:

• In-house 3D printing of resin temporal bone models is a highly cost-effective solution for surgical simulation.
• This method provides a scalable and affordable alternative to traditional cadaveric specimens.
• The established workflow enables significant cost savings for anatomical dissection courses.