[azinman2]

I'm curious to know how they then attach that skull to the rest of her body. Is there a skin transplant that somehow lives on top of plastic? Do they just screw it into other bones to hold it into place? But what about the juncture, and how can you ensure nothing gets in at that juncture?

[coulix]

I guess they screw it to the rest of the skull as this large picture shows http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-03/26/3d-printed-sk...

[Dylan16807]

Not a skin transplant, just the skin. "It is almost impossible to see that she's ever had surgery"

[qnaal]

so they've got it all stashed, and they just flop it back on???

[phyllostachys]

My wife, a surgical technician, hasn't done surgeries like this before but has mentioned how for other procedures (on the face, perhaps) that they fold back the skin and then 'flop it back on'. It is crazy when she talks about stuff she's seen/helped do.

I like to picture surgery to be very similar to working on a car, except the pipes, wires, manifolds, etc are made of organic stuff.

[azinman2]

But in this case how would the skin get fresh blood?

[Dylan16807]

The blood vessels all run within the scalp, which is part of what helps it be loose. Some run up the side and some come out next to the eyes, and nothing has to go through the top half of the skull.

[sjtrny]

They probably use some type of bone cement to help close up gaps between the implant and the skull.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_cement

[542458]

> Bone cement chemically is nothing more than Plexiglas (i.e. polymethyl methacrylate or PMMA).

Wow! I wonder if it's a special formulation - acrylic glass is really bad at chemical resistance (pretty much any organic solvent will damage it) and shatters pretty easily.

[sjtrny]

In one of the linked articles in the discussion it says the printed skull is made of PMMA. They must do something to it to make it last.

Edit: found it http://www.anatomics.com/products/cranial-implants/acrylic/