But glass is too fragile, and traditional skull implants are opaque. Now, a team of bioengineers has developed an implant using a strong, transparent material that could make brain-windows a reality.

With these pieces in place, Liu and his colleagues tested several transparent skull implants on rats, finding that a thin window made from polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) - which resembles ...

The precursor to this achievement was a similar patching done last year, where 75% of a patient's skull was replaced with a 3D-printed implant made of polyetherketoneketone (PEKK, a thermoplastic).

The researchers note that the advantages of their new skull option would extend to chronic monitoring of cerebral edema or swelling, and for more precise targeting of therapies for residual gliomas.

During emergency surgery, half of Hager's skull was removed to relieve pressure on his brain. Doctors had planned to replace the skull bone once Hager recovered, but the pandemic derailed those plans.