Author: Vishruta A. Dumane, Andrew Lukban, Charlotte Elizabeth Read, Mario Serrano-Sosa, Ren-Dih Sheu, Nadia M. Vassell 👨🔬
Affiliation: Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Mount Sinai Beth Israel 🌍
Purpose:
Defined seed positions are used when following the COMS formalism for eye plaques. Au inserts are typically used as templates for placement of radioactive seeds and then covered in Duralay dental resin for the creation eye plaques. Au inserts become distorted from repeated use and thus introduce errors between delivered and calculated COMS doses. We introduce a precise, reproducible, and fast method of eye plaque creation using 3D printed template stamps as an alternative to Au inserts.
Methods:
A 3D printed (PLA) seed position template was created precisely according to nominal COMS coordinates upon a standard eyeball diameter via CAD. This template was then stamped onto a thin Duralay resin in a dough format to imprint the “insert base” as a negative. Once hardened, radioactive seeds can be placed in the stamped insert base to create the positive and then covered with additional resin to secure them. Custom, non-COMS configurations may also be precisely created.
Results:
Eye plaques created in this manner were fast and trivial to build because seeds fit reliably in all the defined positions. The 3D printed parts have a dimensional accuracy of ±0.02 mm. The ease and speed of build significantly reduced radiation exposure to the builder and has been described elsewhere. Subjectively, the seed placement permitted by this method resulted in extremely controlled and uniform location of seed position and angle, as if they were machine-made, with no tedious, manual adjustment required for seed fitment.
Conclusion:
The use of 3D printed template stamps for the creation of eye plaques is fast, precise and reproducible. Au templates are malleable and become damaged after repeated use. This inexpensive and reproducible template assures dosimetric accuracy by precisely printing new, sturdy inserts for each patient. Furthermore, custom eye plaque builds can be easily configured with this method.