10/06/2025
A 3D-printed windpipe was transplanted into a woman for the first time.
At Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital in Korea, doctors gave a woman in her 50s a tailor-made trachea after part of hers was removed during thyroid cancer surgery. Unlike previous attempts, this new windpipe isn’t just synthetic – it’s partly alive.
Engineers designed the organ from CT and MRI scans, then 3D-printed it under 5 cm (2 inches) long using a biodegradable polymer for structure and “bio-ink” infused with stem cells and cartilage cells from other patients. The implant is strong enough to function now but is designed to gradually dissolve as her own body regenerates a natural windpipe in its place.
Six months later, the graft is healing well, with new blood vessels forming. Remarkably, the patient needed no immunosuppressants – a major advance over traditional reconstructions, which can’t truly restore the organ and often carry high risk.
The polymer scaffold is expected to last about five years, long enough for her body to rebuild its own trachea. If the approach holds, it could transform treatment for patients with cancer, trauma, or congenital airway conditions.
While still experimental, this marks a leap forward for 3D bioprinting. For decades, medicine has dreamed of building replacement organs on demand. This transplant – printed, implanted, and already working – shows that future may be closer than we think.
Learn more:
"Woman given a new 3D-printed windpipe in a world-first." BBC Science Focus, 7 March 2024.
📸Credit: Human Anatomy Atlas
