Utilisation of three-dimensional printed heart models for operative planning of complex congenital heart defects.

Background And Aim: To evaluate the accuracy of the three-dimensional (3D) printing of cardiovascular structures. To explore whether utilisation of 3D printed heart replicas can improve surgical and catheter interventional planning in patients with complex congenital heart defects.

Methods: Between December 2014 and November 2015 we fabricated eight cardiovascular models based on computed tomography data in patients with complex spatial anatomical relationships of cardiovascular structures.