A life changed in an instant

In August 2004, 21-year-old Marc Jacob’s life changed in an instant. While out cycling, a woman suddenly stepped into the road. Marc swerved, lost control and hit the ground head-first. The impact was severe. He sustained a traumatic brain injury and was placed in a coma for a week and a half.

When he came round, he struggled with speech and concentration, and remembered very little about the accident. Rehabilitation followed, including physiotherapy, speech and language therapy, and occupational therapy. Just as he was about to begin his studies, his life had suddenly taken a very different course.

A long process of surgery and setbacks

During his hospital stay, two sections of his skull were removed to relieve pressure on the brain and prevent it from becoming life-threatening. In November 2004, those bone sections were replaced in line with standard procedure. A year and a half later, complications arose: one of the sections was completely resorbed. This caused a visible deformity on the right-hand side of his face and skull. In April 2006, that section was reconstructed using bone cement. But the second section also proved unable to resist resorption. In 2008, another deformity developed, this time on the left-hand side.

It was not until April 2010, six years after the accident, that Marc received a patient-specific implant to correct the deformities. In his case, this solution could have been used much earlier. That would have avoided two operations and could have greatly reduced the impact on his life.

An implant designed to fit

Working with Xilloc and the Department of Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery at Maastricht UMC+, the team designed a patient-specific implant tailored precisely to Marc’s anatomy. Where earlier treatments had failed to deliver the desired outcome, this solution provided an accurate reconstruction of the skull, fully adapted to Marc and his circumstances.

After the operation, Marc was able to get back to his life. The reconstruction not only restored the shape of his skull, but also allowed him to look to the future again. He firmly believes that patient-specific implants should become the standard of care, in order to minimise the impact on patients as much as possible.

“It felt like a pit stop – the operation was over very quickly”
Marc Jacob