Global first 3D printed tantalum knee joint

The world’s first 3D printed tantalum knee joint has been implanted in a Chinese patient in Southwest China’s Chongqing.

The implant mostly replaced the knee joint of the 84-year-old man, Zhang Jingui. He regained mobility on Wednesday, just a day after the surgery in the Southwest Hospital in Chongqing, local news site cqcb.com reported. It said Zhang will largely regain mobility of the knee joint.

In China, the incidence of knee osteoarthritis is 2.2 percent to 3.5 percent, according to the report. Each year, about 400 people receive knee-replacement surgeries in the Chongqing hospital.

Customized 3D printed replacement joints have become an emerging technology. At present, most 3D printed knee joint implants are made with titanium alloy, but modularized implants can't fill and reproduce the defective bone structures.

The melting point of tantalum is as high as 3,000 C, making it difficult for most 3D printers on the market to create the implants, Yang Liu, the surgeon who carried out the innovative operation and head of the surgical department of the hospital, was quoted as saying in the report.

Before the surgery, Yang’s research team successfully produced 3D printed porous tantalum joints through collaboration with domestic printing companies.

The new joints feature better compactness, which guarantees the initial stability of the implant while reducing the surgery time, according to the report.

Industry insiders said 3D printing is an opportunity for the medical industry to realize some breakthroughs. According to a report from market research firm IQ4IResearch Consultancy at the end of 2016, the global market for 3D printing medical devices will reach $3.89 billion by 2022.