Doctors save babies with "4-D" printed implants

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (WPVI) -- You may have heard of 3-D printing - using special computer printers to make three-dimensional objects.

Now a Michigan hospital says it's bumped that up to 4D, using the technology to save three babies who had life-threatening breathing problems.

The infants all had a disease which causes the windpipe to collapse...and block breathing.

Using 3-D printing, doctors at Mott Children's Hospital of University of Michigan Health created tiny splints, which were implanted to keep the airways open.

But these are the first to use a special material which changes as the babies grow.

Little Kaiba Gionfriddo in the three years since he became the first to get an implant.

And the other two are also doing well.

"It's been exciting to watch as these children went from a situation where it looked like their parents would be planning their funerals and instead they're watching their children grow & develop," says Dr. Glenn Green, an otolaryngologist who helped develop the implant.

Dr. Green says the implants are a way to cure a disease which has been killing children for generations.

The disorder, called tracheobronchomalacia, affects about 1 in 2,000 children around the world.

Over time, the splints will dissolve as the babies' own tracheas grow stronger.

The doctors say that the use the implant and the 4D biomaterials opens a new door for helping patients with disorders involving the heart, bones, muscles or gut.