3D PRINTING

From creating surgical tools to organ transplant breakthroughs, advances in 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, are currently capturing attention in the healthcare field

The latest in medical technology is 3D printing, the scope and application of which has been ever widening since its humble beginning a few decades ago.

A radiologist, for instance, might create an exact replica of a patient’s spine to help plan a surgery, a dentist could scan a broken tooth to make a crown that fits precisely into the patient’s mouth. In both instances, the doctors can use 3D printing to make products that specifically match a patient’s anatomy.

And the technology is not limited to planning surgeries or producing customised dental restorations, 3D printing has enabled the production of customised prosthetic limbs, cranial implants, or orthopaedic implants such as hips and knees. At the same time, its potential to change the manufacturing of medical products - particularly high-risk devices such as implants - could affect patient safety significantly.

Yet a relatively novel method of manufacture, 3D printing has, however, diversified massively in terms of printing methods, materials, and design possibilities, finding niche application in a range of fields, including healthcare and the life sciences.

3D printing has a transformative impact on the way surgery and dentistry is performed, and how prosthetics and implants are designed, allowing the creation of custom, personalised items fit for the patient or the particular task at hand.

This technology typically refers to an additive manufacturing process, i.e. one where material is added in successive layers or stages, rather than being removed from bulk material (subtractive) or directly moulded to shape, as with materials such as thermosetting plastics.

Research into this technology was ongoing throughout the 1970s and patented in 1984, and is broadly utilised to produce custom manufactured parts. The type of resin employed can be adapted to purpose; for biocompatibility in cases of biological implant or prosthesis, for toughness and rigidity where required, and so on.

This method of printing evolved into many of the types perhaps more commonly used today, which employ a frame capable of moving an extrusion head in three dimensions above a platform, such as fused deposition modelling (FDM) 3D printing.

Now, there are over 18 methods of 3D printing, each with numerous modifications, allowing custom products to be manufactured in a broad range of materials, with differing degrees of ease and accessibility, quality, and suitability towards medical applications.

Innovations in surgical tools and equipment

3D printing is increasingly employed in the creation of surgical aids, including the design and production of accurate training models, specialised instruments, and scaffolds that aid in implantation or tissue repair.

One of the major advantages of 3D printing technologies is that iterative changes can be made to newly designed tools based on immediate feedback from surgeons and other medical professionals; design changes can be implemented in silico and a new device printed overnight.

Some of the major issues with ordinary mass-produced prosthetics is surrounding abandonment; the user ceases to wear the prosthetic as they are uncomfortable, awkward, or unappealing aesthetically. The custom sizing possible using 3D printing technologies, however, allows much more comfortable prosthetics to be manufactured from biocompatible components, potentially in more complex designs and lower mass than traditional prosthetics.

There are several types of organ 3D printing, and the technology is still in its infancy. One of the earliest and most broadly employed methods is known as cell seeding, wherein a supporting scaffold is 3D printed from biocompatible materials and then seeded with cells that will propagate to fill the structure, potentially in situ in order to aid in wound healing.