Cardiac Three-Dimensional Printing Using Noninvasive Modalities: Will It Revolutionize Cardiac Care?

Recent advancements in technology have brought threedimensional (3D) printing to the forefront of medicine. Three-dimensional printing consists of manipulating a two-dimensional (2D) image obtained via noninvasive modalities, such as computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), or 3D echocardiography to a 3D dataset and then finally into a physicalmodel. Thesemodels can then be used to enhance patient care in both acute and chronic clinical settings. Critical care medicine represents one area that has been influenced by the development of 3D printing. Multiple congenital abnormalities such as ventricular septal defect (VSD) or ventricular septal rupture following a myocardial infarction can be simulated prior to being witnessed in patients. Here,we summarize how3Dprinting is currently being implemented in critical care medicine.