Three‐dimensional (3D) printing has shown great promise in medicine with increasing reports in congenital heart disease (CHD). This systematic review aims to analyse the main clinical applications and accuracy of 3D printing in CHD, as well as to provide an overview of the software tools, time and costs associated with the generation of 3D printed heart models. A search of different databases was conducted to identify studies investigating the application of 3D printing in CHD. Studies based on patient's medical imaging datasets were included for analysis, while reports on in vitro phantom or review articles were excluded from the analysis. A total of 28 studies met selection criteria for inclusion in the review. More than half of the studies were based on isolated case reports with inclusion of 1–12 cases (61%), while 10 studies (36%) focused on the survey of opinion on the usefulness of 3D printing by healthcare professionals, patients, parents of patients and medical students, and the remaining one involved a multicentre study about the clinical value of 3D printed models in surgical planning of CHD. The analysis shows that patient‐specific 3D printed models accurately replicate complex cardiac anatomy, improve understanding and knowledge about congenital heart diseases and demonstrate value in preoperative planning and simulation of cardiac or interventional procedures, assist surgical decision‐making and intra‐operative orientation, and improve patient‐doctor communication and medical education. The cost of 3D printing ranges from USD 55 to USD 810. This systematic review shows the usefulness of 3D printed models in congenital heart disease with applications ranging from accurate replication of complex cardiac anatomy and pathology to medical education, preoperative planning and simulation. The additional cost and time required to manufacture the 3D printed models represent the limitations which need to be addressed in future studies.

ObjectiveCurrent diagnostic assessment tools remain suboptimal in demonstrating complex morphology of congenital heart disease (CHD). This limitation has posed several challenges in preoperative planning, communication in medical practice, and medical education. This study aims to investigate the dimensional accuracy and the clinical value of 3D printed model of CHD in the above three areas.MethodsUsing cardiac computed tomography angiography (CCTA) data, a patient-specific 3D model of a 20-month-old boy with double outlet right ventricle was printed in Tango Plus material. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to evaluate correlation of the quantitative measurements taken at analogous anatomical locations between the CCTA images pre- and post-3D printing. Qualitative analysis was conducted by distributing surveys to six health professionals (two radiologists, two cardiologists and two cardiac surgeons) and three medical academics to assess the clinical value of the 3D printed model in these three areas.ResultsExcellent correlation (r = 0.99) was noted in the measurements between CCTA and 3D printed model, with a mean difference of 0.23 mm. Four out of six health professionals found the model to be useful in facilitating preoperative planning, while all of them thought that the model would be invaluable in enhancing patient-doctor communication. All three medical academics found the model to be helpful in teaching, and thought that the students will be able to learn the pathology quicker with better understanding.ConclusionThe complex cardiac anatomy can be accurately replicated in flexible material using 3D printing technology. 3D printed heart models could serve as an excellent tool in facilitating preoperative planning, communication in medical practice, and medical education, although further studies with inclusion of more clinical cases are needed.

Patient-specific three-dimensional (3D) printed models have been increasingly used in cardiology and cardiac surgery, in particular, showing great value in the domain of congenital heart disease (CHD). CHD is characterized by complex cardiac anomalies with disease variations between individuals; thus, it is difficult to obtain comprehensive spatial conceptualization of the cardiac structures based on the current imaging visualizations. 3D printed models derived from patient’s cardiac imaging data overcome this limitation by creating personalized 3D heart models, which not only improve spatial visualization, but also assist preoperative planning and simulation of cardiac procedures, serve as a useful tool in medical education and training, and improve doctor–patient communication. This review article provides an overall view of the clinical applications and usefulness of 3D printed models in CHD. Current limitations and future research directions of 3D printed heart models are highlighted.

The aim of this paper is to summarize and evaluate results from existing studies on accuracy and clinical value of three-dimensional printed heart models (3DPHM) for determining whether 3D printing can significantly improve on how the congenital heart disease (CHD) is managed in current clinical practice. Proquest, Google Scholar, Scopus, PubMed, and Medline were searched for relevant studies until April 2019. Two independent reviewers performed manual data extraction and assessed the risk of bias of the studies using the tools published on National Institutes of Health (NIH) website. The following data were extracted from the studies: author, year of publication, study design, imaging modality, segmentation software, utility of 3DPHM, CHD types, and dimensional accuracy. R software was used for the meta-analysis. Twenty-four articles met the inclusion criteria and were included in the systematic review. However, only 7 studies met the statistical requirements and were eligible for meta-analysis. Cochran’s Q test demonstrated significant variation among the studies for both of the meta-analyses of accuracy of 3DPHM and the utility of 3DPHM in medical education. Analysis of all included studies reported the mean deviation between the 3DPHM and the medical images is not significant, implying that 3DPHM are highly accurate. As for the utility of the 3DPHM, it is reported in all relevant studies that the 3DPHM improve the learning experience and satisfaction among the users, and play a critical role in facilitating surgical planning of complex CHD cases. 3DPHM have the potential to enhance communication in medical practice, however their clinical value remains debatable. More studies are required to yield a more meaningful meta-analysis.

Current visualization techniques of complex congenital heart disease (CHD) are unable to provide comprehensive visualization of the anomalous cardiac anatomy as the medical datasets can essentially only be viewed from a flat, two-dimensional (2D) screen. Three-dimensional (3D) printing has therefore been used to replicate patient-specific hearts in 3D views based on medical imaging datasets. This technique has been shown to have a positive impact on the preoperative planning of corrective surgery, patient-doctor communication, and the learning experience of medical students. However, 3D printing is often costly, and this impedes the routine application of this technology in clinical practice. This technical note aims to investigate whether reducing 3D printing costs can have any impact on the clinical value of the 3D-printed heart models. Low-cost and a high-cost 3D-printed models based on a selected case of CHD were generated with materials of differing cost. Quantitative assessment of dimensional accuracy of the cardiac anatomy and pathology was compared between the 3D-printed models and the original cardiac computed tomography (CT) images with excellent correlation (r=0.99). Qualitative evaluation of model usefulness showed no difference between the two models in medical applications.