Metal 3D printing opens a new era of hard tissue medical

Personalized medical care is an important direction for medical development in the 21st century. With the development of 3D printing technology and its continuous expansion in the medical field, the application of this innovative technology in the field of hard tissue has emerged. At present, the domestic hard tissue field is paying more and more attention to 3D printing technology, and a large number of successful cases are beginning to emerge.

3D printing technology does not require complicated production processes or use any other tools, and can minimize inventory, which successfully achieves cost reduction and delivery time reduction. For those small and complex parts, Such as orthopedic implants, the benefits are particularly obvious.

Many surgeons are currently experimenting with metal 3D printing processes to make implants, and will soon be a successful application. The reason is that metal 3D printing mainly has the following characteristics:

1. Biocompatible metal powder

The ability to obtain an expected response from adjacent cells and tissues on its surface is a very important attribute of surgical implants. Because cell behavior (adhesion, functional changes, morphological changes, and proliferation) is strongly influenced by its surface properties. Surface topography, surface chemistry, and surface energy dominate the biological response of the implant.

Thus, for the manufacture of implants, the preferred materials are pure titanium and titanium alloys. Pure titanium has high corrosion resistance and is considered to be the most biocompatible metal. As long as its surface is exposed to an oxidizing medium, it is capable of spontaneously forming a stable inert oxide layer. If biomedical implants are required to have higher strength, then the better choice is Ti6Al4V alloy, which also exhibits good fatigue and corrosion resistance and a low specific gravity.

In addition, other biocompatible materials that can be provided in powder form are stainless steel 316L and cobalt chromium alloys. The highly controlled metal 3D printing environment (filled with neutral gases and oxygen-limited) ensures high purity of the printed parts and retains the desired material properties.

2, cheaper "disposable" custom metal implants

Traditional methods are often time-consuming and expensive when manufacturing custom implants, while 3D printing is much more flexible, its funding needs are limited to a certain extent, and design complexity is reduced, allowing personal customization to be achieved. .

Metal 3D printing opens a new era of hard tissue medical

Craniofacial prosthesis

Obviously, customized products are more in line with the medical needs of patients and recover faster. Orthopedic surgeons can optimize the shape of the stress distribution on the bone and provide better adaptability and eliminate the need for the surgeon to perform manual procedures during surgery. The risk of failure is reduced, while the time and overall cost of surgery are also reduced.

Metal 3D printing opens a new era of hard tissue medical

Artificial joint component

3. Synergism between 3D printing and orthopedic metal implants

Titanium has a high modulus of elasticity that tends to cause elastic mismatch between the implant and the bone and limits the use of such materials. A low-elastic Young's modulus helps to avoid "stress occlusion" (ie, the disappearance of normal bone stress due to implants), while "stress occlusion" leads to a decrease in bone density.

Since metal 3D printing technology can specify the porosity of the constructed object, this problem can be solved by changing the volume fraction and the size distribution of the porous structure. In fact, the elastic modulus of porous titanium decreases as the pore size increases, and the implant can be tailored to have mechanical properties similar to human bone.

In addition, metal implants that have traditionally been fabricated using reduced materials typically have a porous surface coating applied to the surface to facilitate bone ingrowth on the implant. The metal 3D printing can realize the integrated production of the dense load-bearing structure and the precise and interconnected open pore structure, induce bone ingrowth, and realize osseointegration of the implant and the host bone.

Last but not least, when the orthopedic implant requires biofixation, the rough surface of the metal 3D printed pre-finished part can eliminate the need for downstream spraying operations, saving time and money.

Metal 3D printing opens a new era of hard tissue medical

Pelvic repair

However, at present, 3D orthopedics project approval is strictly for a long time. Actually, in the use of 3D printing orthopedic technology, the application of the medical industry in the world is at the same starting point, and some of our work is ahead of foreign countries. However, the foreign review process is indeed brief. Now, the United States and the European Union do not require 3D printing orthopedics to go through clinical trials and can be listed directly, but need to come up with pre-test data. They believe that the 3D printing orthopedic titanium material has not changed, but the process changes, it is safe to use in the human body, so it is approved for marketing without clinical trials.

In the past, 3D orthopedic models were made in a traditional way to make a mold. About a hundred pieces of components were formed into a whole, and then cast out, and then through finishing, no mold could be produced in a few months. But in 3D printing orthopedics, a CT film is taken for the patient, the data comes out, the computer software is input, and the 3D printer is used in one day.

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