Manufacturing and medicine team up to save dog
At a time when the expectation is that we should all stay apart, CAMAL has come together—safely, of course—with another NC State college and an industry partner to perform a miraculous procedure that saved the life of a dog and furthered medical research.
Several oncology departments within NC State’s College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM) hold a weekly meeting to discuss cases that may require collaboration between them. At one of these meetings in June, Marine Traverson, an assistant professor at the CVM, was introduced to a unique problem. “That morning, one of our medical oncology residents, Dr. Susan Shapiro, presented the CT-Scan and the biopsy results of Sheba, a 10-year old spayed female Great Pyrenees that was affected by a very large tumor of her maxillary and nasal bones, the bones that form the snout”. This particular tumor was relatively rare and remarkably invasive. “Sheba’s was definitely one of the largest I had seen,” Traverson recalled. “The tumor had basically taken over the largest portion of her snout.”
Initially, surgery was not considered as a treatment option for Sheba because the tumor was so large that it looked inoperable. Suddenly, Traverson had a eureka moment. “I was looking at her CT scan in this virtual meeting and thought, ‘she needs a 3D printed implant!’ Immediately after the meeting, I went to talk to our medical oncology resident and explained to her my crazy idea.” Happily, Sheba’s owner liked the approach, so Traverson began building a team.
- Categories:
