Dachshund with a New 3-D Skull

Patches, a 9-year-old dachshund, BEFORE an operation to remove a large tumor and cover the gap in her skull with a custom 3-D printed titanium implant.

From The New York Times:

In March, American and Canadian veterinarians removed a tumor from Patches’s head that was so large they had to carve out as much as 70 percent of her skull.

So they made Patches a new “skull” to cover the gap. The team members used 3-D printing to tailor a titanium plate to match what was left of the bone. Then they implanted the custom-made plate in Patches’s head like a puzzle piece.

Today Patches looks and acts like a normal dog.