The advent of 3D printing technology has been heralded as the third wave of industrial revolution, highlighting the vast array of prospects it offers across various disciplines and application. 3D printing technology is becoming more prevalent in several medical fields, such as dentistry, surgery, orthopedics, and pathology.1 Its remarkable success in the mentioned fields has been attributed to the ease of medical image processing, which mainly includes the structure of bones and shows high visibility and contrast. The segmentation process enabling the conversion of medical images into a virtual model involves extracting a specific structure from each layer of the image dataset. The final model is exported to a suitable 3D printing and prototyping format following this stage. The desired anatomical model is synthesized following a postprocessing step based on the specific production technology.1,2 3D printing technology is based on an assemblage-based manufacturing process in which layers of material are added on top of one another to produce 3D objects.

Current 3D printing technology adds a third dimension to 2D printing procedures. Most 3D printers bear a resemblance to conventional inkjet printers in that rolls of flexible plastic are melted (instead of ink in an inkjet printer) and layered to create 3D objects.3 A computer-designed model is sent to the printer, and the printer provides the physical output of that object. However, the main difference is that 3D objects prepared in the computer environment are presented to users as 3D products.4

Simple 3D printers use plastic as raw material, while more expensive 3D printers are retrofitted to work with various metals. Nevertheless, the most common material in simple 3D printers is a plastic filament, which is spread, melted, and solidified into firm plastic. These filaments should be heated to a suitable temperature and then used continuously. Typically, the 3D printer is governed by an operating system that utilizes a user interface on the main computer to configure and oversee various elements of the 3D printer.3 In medical physics, researchers see its applications in various clinical aspects. However, there is still interest in the few academic centers with the luxury of such unconventionality.5

3D printing technology can be used in many fields, as students get better representations in graphic education, visual education, and spatial understanding, leading to improved academic results. Moreover, 3D printing technology is readily applicable to almost all aspects of daily life, fulfilling the needs of people from various backgrounds, yet perhaps none as profound as those involved in medical fields or the production of special medical devices.6 Likewise, 3D printing technology can aid in prototyping replicas or carving parts of the human heart, including large vessels, valves, et cetera. As such, the purpose of the current study was to review the various applications of 3D printing technology in cardiac surgery and intervention.7