1. Blood vessels: A Harvard team has developed a method for creating hollow channels that allow blood to flow throughout the organ, essentially functioning as blood vessels. This new development will allow researchers to build thicker, more complex tissues that would otherwise fail.





2. Heart Valve: Physicians at the Henry Ford Innovation Institute have been using non-bio 3-D printing to recreate hearts and valves. While not actual replacement organs, the exact replicas of individual organs are invaluable for the optimal treatment of patients. As we all know, each of us have unique sets of fingerprints, but a lesser-known fact is that we all have different hearts and valves as well. The models generated by the 3-D printers allow the doctor to examine in detail the innermost workings of the heart without making a single incision. This means helping doctors determine a candidate’s suitability for high risk procedures as well as optimal placement and custom fit of prosthetic valves and helping doctors anticipate adjustments that may be needed once the surgery begins.





3. Skin: Although Jörg Gerlach of the University of Pittsburgh has previously developed the “skin gun”, which sprays burn victims with their own epithelial stem cells to treat severe burns, the technology lacks the ability to treat deep burns very effectively. Fortunately, James Yoo of the University of Wake Forest School of Medicine has demonstrated the effectiveness of using 3-D bioprinting for the treatment of deep burns by utilizing multiple skin layers sprayed directly onto the burn site.





4. Bionic ear: 3-D bioprinted bionic ears are now currently a viable option since cartilaginous tissue (such as that of the ear) does not need the same level of vascularization as other tissues require. A team at Princeton has incredibly combined cartilage tissue with electronics in order to create a fully functioning ear that has some unique capabilities, such as enhanced auditory sensing for radio frequency reception.





5. Animal Legs: National Pingtung University of Science and Veterinary Medicine Department (NPUST) in Taiwan is 3D Printing Prosthetic Body Parts for Animals at Just 1/30th the Cost. It creates prosthetics with more suitable materials other than the traditional PLA plastic available on the machines.





6. Skull: Printed structures made of hard metal or polymers are already on the market for people in need of an artificial hip, finger bone or facial reconstruction. This skull implant (grey) made by Oxford Performance Materials of South Windsor, Connecticut, was approved by US regulators in 2013. It is made of a polymer meant to encourage bone growth, to aid integration of the implant into the surrounding skeleton.





7. Splint: One of the key advantages of using 3D printing for surgical implants is the opportunity to model the implant to fit the patient. This airway splint (shown on the right branch of the model trachea) was designed by researchers at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor to fit an infant with a damaged airway. The splint was made out of a material that is gradually absorbed by the body as the airway heals. The research team benefited from the concentration of 3D-printing expertise that has built up in Michigan because of the US automobile industry, which uses the technology for printing prototypes and design samples.





8. Kidneys: The dream of bioprinting is to print organs that can be used for transplant. At the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, researchers are developing a 3D-printed kidney. The project is in its early stages and the kidney is far from functional. Some are doubtful that researchers will ever be able to print such a complex organ. A more achievable near-term goal, they say, is to print sheets of kidney tissue that could be grafted onto existing kidneys.





9. Ribcages: This perfectly sized and precisely-designed titanium ribcage was 3D-printed for a 54-year-old man in Spain.





10. Noses: Design Student Creates 3D Printed Shock-absorbing Prosthetic Nose & Scaffold System.





11. Arms: Mick Ebeling of Not Impossible Labs labs flew to Sudan in 2013 to show locals how to 3D-print inexpensive prosthetic arms.





12. Eyeball: A Wales man is thought to be one of the first to receive major 3D-printed plastic surgery, receiving a 3D-printed eyeball and facial-structure plates in 2012.





13. Legs: Fors, designer Scott Summit has been developing “beautiful” 3D-printed prosthetic leg prototypes for amputee patients.





14. Jawbones: A European octogenarian is the recipient of the first-ever 3-D printed jawbone, made of titanium powder that was sintered together one layer at a time.the first 3D-printed jaw implant went to an 83-year-old woman in the Netherlands.





15. Breast: Fripp Design’s newly developed 3D-printed breast implant (patent pending) aims to make augmentation and post-mastectomy reconstruction both easier and more effective.





16. Faces: Doctors in the UK were able to produce a 3D-printed prosthetic face for this man in 2013 after the removal of a large tumor left him disfigured.





17. Hip Joints: After a crippling battle with neurofibroma, a 15-year-old Swedish girl is able to walk again thanks to a 3D-printed hip implant she received in 2012.





18. FingerTips: A Nevada man 3D-printed himself a finger tip prototype after he lost a portion of his pointer in a work accident.





19. Liver Tissue: Organovo, the developer of the first 3-D bioprinted liver tissue, has the potential to revolutionize medical research. By making live human liver tissue commercially available, researchers are now able to test the effectiveness and toxicity of medication prior to clinical trials without the possibility of damaging the liver of subjects. Not only does this reduce the time and cost of research, the 3-D tissue also provides vital information to researchers that normal 2-D models would lack.





20. Hand: The Dextrus hand works like a human hand, using electric motors instead of muscles and steel cables instead of tendons.