From Image to Insight: Prof. Traverso Scaled 3D Planning from Research to Routine Practice

What does it take to bring 3D technology from research into real-world surgery, at scale?

For Prof. Paolo Traverso, the answer lies in consistency, precision, and the right tools. Since 2020, he and his team at IRCCS Ospedale Policlinico San Martino have performed nearly 300 kidney tumor reconstruction procedures, each based on a 3D plan. At this scale, the adoption of 3D planning is no longer a proof of concept. It’s standard practice.

Early on, generating a high-quality 3D model from CT data took Traverso’s team nearly 90 minutes. Today, that process has fallen to just 25 minutes — a reflection of both the team’s expertise and the added value of 3D planning software.

Now a stable part of the team’s workflow, 3D planning has become an asset both preoperatively and intraoperatively, enabling real-time collaboration among surgeons, radiologists, and engineers in a busy shared surgical block.

“Improved collaboration and more informed planning are two of the benefits we’ve seen in our procedures thanks to 3D reconstructions,” Prof. Traverso tells us.

The team also developed a research method to calculate Real Contact Surface Area (RCSA) between anatomical structures, using detailed 3D reconstructions created in Materialise Mimics InPrint. While the 3D planning platform is not certified for clinical use in oncology, the reconstructions proved useful in a research setting, and their findings — published in peer-reviewed literature — could inform future surgical research.

“Intraoperatively, having a patient-specific anatomical model — a ‘digital twin’ — enables confident decision-making at every stage,” Prof. Traverso explains.

These models can help the surgeon identify details that often remain obscured in traditional imaging. In many cases, the surgical plan is refined on the spot based on this enhanced anatomical understanding.

Patient feedback has also been encouraging. “Some patients ask to see the 3D model before surgery,” Traverso notes, “and say it gives them a deeper understanding of their condition — and peace of mind.”

Beyond surgery, 3D reconstructions have played a role in training residents and younger surgeons. The necessary skills are both easy to learn and increasingly valuable, helping set the trainees on the path to a successful career.

“From the beginning, my goal in proposing the adoption of a 3D reconstruction system at IRCCS San Martino was to provide all surgical colleagues with a new tool to assess patients and plan surgeries,” Prof. Traverso explains. “We also developed and published a protocol for studying the learning curve in 3D reconstruction for residents and colleagues. Preliminary results, soon to be published, show that these skills can be acquired quickly, significantly boosting one’s knowledge and professional development.”

This work hasn’t gone unnoticed. Prof. Traverso has been invited to present on Italian media, and the broader public is now taking an interest in 3D planning and how translational research can directly benefit patient care.

“This marks an important milestone,” he reflects. “Five years after adopting 3D planning and completing nearly 300 reconstructions, the results have met — and often exceeded — our expectations.”

Prof. Traverso and his collaborators are now looking ahead to an even more ambitious challenge: creating an intra-body navigation system based on the digital twin concept. The goal? Real-time, autonomous alignment of 3D reconstructions with the surgeon’s field of view — bringing us one step closer to precision-guided surgery.

At Materialise, we are proud to support pioneers like Prof. Traverso who are pushing the boundaries of what's possible with 3D planning in medicine.