Paris hospitals turn to 3D printing to cover shortfalls

PARIS: With the coronavirus outbreak predicted to peak in France in the coming days, hospitals in Paris are racing to make up for urgent shortages of equipment to protect staff and patients by printing them in 3D.

As the number of recorded COVID-19 cases in France nears 60,000, including more than 4,000 deaths, hospitals are running short of protective visors, masks, parts for ventilators and other essentials.

On Wednesday, the “3D COVID” project, initiated by a surgeon at the Necker children´s hospital, was launched by the Paris hospital authority AP-HP, which said it would now be possible to “produce large quantities of medical devices to meet the demands for unprecedented equipment in this period of epidemic. In a miniature factory set up on the grounds of a park alongside the Cochin hospital in Paris, around 60 3D printers have been set up to produce a range of items requested by doctors, nurses and other medical staff across the city.

The AP-HP said production of valves, syringe plungers, intubation and ventilator equipment, and rigid face masks would begin as soon as possible. “Depending on the type of equipment and its complexity, we will be able to produce 300 objects a day, up to 3,000 per week,” said Roman Khonsari, the doctor at Necker who is directing the project. As a maxillofacial surgeon, Khonsari has long been an advocate of 3D printing´s potential, using it to plan operations and to develop artificial implants. Last November, he opened a dedicated research laboratory in his hospital, with financial support from the Gueules Cassees (Broken Faces) foundation, which was created to help disfigured veterans of the First World War.