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The 3D printing revolution has already transformed the way things are manufactured in most sectors, however it is still taking baby steps in healthcare. The way the things are unfolding, the surgical field and implantation would be the most happening arena for 3D printing in coming years. The key thrust would be in medical teaching, orthopaedic surgery, maxillofacial surgery, onco surgery, crania - spinal surgery and Forensics.
Orthopedic surgeons and joint replacement have already made this as a part of their standard armamentarium while dealing with difficult fractures, complex hip and knee replacement and revision surgery. Three dimensional Patient Optimised Surgical Tools help the surgeons do pre operative planning, surgical simulation, inventory management and serve as an intra operative reference. These have almost pushed the complex computer navigation system into the obscurity. The day is not far when they would have each of the implants printed right in their operating rooms. And that these implants would be different not just in their raw material inputs, but also the shapes customised according to the disease and patients natural anatomy. Bio printing has brought the surgeons and bio engineers close to develop the ideal implant that is likely to last a patients life time.
There are however several road blocks that need to be removed and safeguards that need to be in place to help the technology evolve in a natural and progressive manner. We have seen that how too much hype has killed brilliant innovations and I think it is right time that the fraternity and policy makers lay down some basic tenets for the use of the technology. While this technology levels the field across the globe for innovative thinking and lot of collaboration, innovation and excellence can be expected,the opposite could also happen - sub standard implants, over hyped customisation and trashing proven for un proven. Some potential food for thought for fraternity and policy makers could be in area: instrumentation vs implantation; biomaterial testing, OR printing safeguards, sterilisation. At the moment design, Deliberate ( with a capital D ), and deploy seems to be the correct mantra!!!!
Ref:
1. Use of rapid prototyping and three-dimensional reconstruction modeling in the management of complex fractures.
Bagaria V, Deshpande S, Rasalkar DD, Kuthe A, Paunipagar BK.
Eur J Radiol. 2011 Dec;80(3):814-20. Epub 2011 Jan 22. Review.
PMID: 21256690
Re: Tip of the Iceberg : How might 3D printing affect clinical practice?
The 3D printing revolution has already transformed the way things are manufactured in most sectors, however it is still taking baby steps in healthcare. The way the things are unfolding, the surgical field and implantation would be the most happening arena for 3D printing in coming years. The key thrust would be in medical teaching, orthopaedic surgery, maxillofacial surgery, onco surgery, crania - spinal surgery and Forensics.
Orthopedic surgeons and joint replacement have already made this as a part of their standard armamentarium while dealing with difficult fractures, complex hip and knee replacement and revision surgery. Three dimensional Patient Optimised Surgical Tools help the surgeons do pre operative planning, surgical simulation, inventory management and serve as an intra operative reference. These have almost pushed the complex computer navigation system into the obscurity. The day is not far when they would have each of the implants printed right in their operating rooms. And that these implants would be different not just in their raw material inputs, but also the shapes customised according to the disease and patients natural anatomy. Bio printing has brought the surgeons and bio engineers close to develop the ideal implant that is likely to last a patients life time.
There are however several road blocks that need to be removed and safeguards that need to be in place to help the technology evolve in a natural and progressive manner. We have seen that how too much hype has killed brilliant innovations and I think it is right time that the fraternity and policy makers lay down some basic tenets for the use of the technology. While this technology levels the field across the globe for innovative thinking and lot of collaboration, innovation and excellence can be expected,the opposite could also happen - sub standard implants, over hyped customisation and trashing proven for un proven. Some potential food for thought for fraternity and policy makers could be in area: instrumentation vs implantation; biomaterial testing, OR printing safeguards, sterilisation. At the moment design, Deliberate ( with a capital D ), and deploy seems to be the correct mantra!!!!
Ref:
1. Use of rapid prototyping and three-dimensional reconstruction modeling in the management of complex fractures.
Bagaria V, Deshpande S, Rasalkar DD, Kuthe A, Paunipagar BK.
Eur J Radiol. 2011 Dec;80(3):814-20. Epub 2011 Jan 22. Review.
PMID: 21256690
2. Book Rapid Prototyping: Medical applications of Rapid Prototyping – A new horizon. Publishers: Intech Open Access Publication, Croatia. (http://www.intechopen.com/articles/show/title/medical-applications-of-ra...)
Competing interests: Author is a stake holder in 3D printing company 3D POST that is active in the filed of medical rapid prototyping.