Rebuilding faces in Ukraine with custom 3D-printed implants

Since the first humans sharpened sticks into spears and faced off with each other, people have been getting injured and killed in battle. In modern times, the technology of war has become incredible and horrifying, with weapons that can kill thousands at a time and leave survivors with debilitating injuries. However, modern technology also offers lifesaving opportunities unavailable in the conflicts of the past and enables medical and other aid to more easily cross borders.

A mission to Ukraine

Dallas, Texas-based MedCAD specializes in designing and manufacturing patient-specific implants, including craniomaxillofacial (CMF) and lower extremity reconstructions. The company uses precise, detailed scans provided by the patient’s surgical team to design and 3D print the custom implants, which are then sent to the surgical team for implantation.

MedCAD President and CEO Nancy Hairston met Dr. Jorge Corona through a series of events she describes as “kismet”. She had mentioned to one of the company’s board members how affected she felt by the ongoing war in Ukraine and how she wished she could help in some way. Soon after that conversation, the board member had an appointment with Corona, an ophthalmologist sub-specializing in oculoplastic and orbital surgery, who mentioned a future scheduling conflict around an upcoming trip to Ukraine to perform facial reconstruction surgeries for injured soldiers and civilians.

The board member put Corona in touch with Hairston, and they agreed to meet after Corona returned from his upcoming trip. He introduced her to the Ukrainian surgical team working with him on the missions, and within five months they were on Zoom calls making plans for MedCAD to design and manufacture custom CMF implants to be delivered by Corona on his next mission.

That was about a year and a half ago. Toward the end of 2025, Hairston made her first trip to Ukraine, accompanying Corona and fellow U.S. surgeons Stuart Seiff, Patrick Carpenter, and John Frodel for the third mission to perform reconstructive surgeries using the custom implants donated by MedCAD.

The overall process was nearly seamless, according to Hairston. The U.S. team had become familiar with the approaches of the Ukrainian surgeons they’d gotten to know throughout the project, and planning the implants was no different from working on cases elsewhere in the U.S., thanks to the power of virtual technology. The reconstructions, however, for mandibular, maxillary, and orbital traumas, offered new challenges and learning opportunities for Hairston.

“We work on trauma as well as cancer type cases every day [at MedCAD]. But this sort of trauma is different than a car wreck,” she says. “The type of scarring to the tissue, just the type of trauma is different. There are things you just can’t foresee when you have a face that’s so damaged – broken bones but also the scar tissue of the soft tissue. So we found there are some things we can do differently for the fitting of, for example, surgical guides, because the access is a little more challenging.”

The mission team has treated even the most difficult cases successfully, though some have taken more time. Hairston plans to share what she learned from the cases with the MedCAD design and engineering teams, who can, with future patients, ask different questions, alter their approach, and make the process more efficient.

Building a global medical aid network

MedCAD uses 3D Systems’ direct metal printing (DMP) technology to additively manufacture the implants in titanium alloy (specifically Ti-6Al-4V). From design to packaging, implants can be ready about a week from receiving the patient scans. The Ukrainian surgeons had been using patient-specific implants and surgical planning technology before the war – many of them, in their 20s and 30s, have been working with these advanced technologies for their entire careers. The war, however, has reduced their access.

“To give them the capability again, to give their patients the type of outcome they had before…They’re very creative and resourceful people, they’ve made do, but they’re very happy to have this access again,” Hairston says.

“The regional hospital there in Kyiv is really developing into a world-class CMF program with the type of trauma they’re dealing with and the volume of cases they have on a daily basis.”

MedCAD is far from the only organization lending its technology to the Ukrainian medical effort. Others include Materialise, which has an office in Kyiv, and many other participants organized by Christian Medical Association of Ukraine (CMA). MedCAD has also connected with fellow Dallas organizations LEAP Global Missions, which offers specialized surgical care to people in need around the world; and Ed’s Friends Ukraine, which uses networking to collect and distribute medical supplies for Ukrainian aid. These organizations are continuously looking to broaden their networks, inviting anyone in the medical device and supply space to connect with them.

“It’s not just money, it’s connections,” Hairston says. “It’s connections to medical device companies that might have inventory they’d like to donate, from microscopes to saws to screwdrivers to any kind of OR equipment. It’s needed and appreciated. Those kinds of connections are really valuable for us.”

3D printing on the front lines

So far MedCAD has designed, manufactured, and delivered implants for about 15 or 16 patients.

Hairston plans to continue using MedCAD’s technology, along with the networks they’ve built, to deliver much-needed implants to victims of war and natural disaster around the world. She foresees advanced manufacturing technology, particularly 3D printing, further developing to make it easier to reach soldiers in the field or patients in remote locations.

Already, the defense sector is leveraging mobile 3D printers, often housed in shipping containers, to quickly churn out hundreds of drones near the front lines, and it’s not much of a leap to imagine similar setups regularly producing medical devices and supplies in the near future. While more serious injuries will still need to be treated in hospitals, these mobile units could produce custom splints and other solutions to see patients through until they can get full treatment.

Mobility is one of the greatest gifts digital manufacturing technology offers – an injured soldier in Ukraine, taken to a mobile 3D printing station, could have their injuries scanned and the scans sent instantly and virtually to a clinic in the U.S., where a custom splint is designed and the file sent immediately back to the mobile printer and 3D printed, without the need for anyone to physically cross borders. The future possibilities for speeding and expanding urgent medical care in the field, and in remote areas, are hopeful.

A global village

Ukraine. Gaza. Sudan. Wars continue to escalate across the world, and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and helpless. This technological era saturating us with so much bad news, however, also allows us more opportunity than ever to help ease suffering regardless of distance.

“We’re a global village,” Hairston says. “Americans care about other countries and other people suffering. We care about people and we care about helping and I’ve been so honored to be a part of this and moved by the feeling of Americans saying ‘thank you for doing this’ and ‘how can I help’?”

MedCAD
https://www.medcad.com