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HomeHealth & Medicine

3D printed skull implant is ready for surgery

Mihai Andrei byMihai Andrei
March 8, 2013
inHealth & Medicine, Inventions
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3D printing is the stuff of the future – today. It’s one of the most stunning pieces of relatively accessible technology; most notably in medicine, the precision offered by 3-D printing can make tiny surface details on the replacement part that encourage the growth of cells and allow the bone to attach more easily. In a specific case, 3D printing technology has helped replace 3/4 of a patient’s skull.

3-d-printed-skull-660

This technology could help replace the bone in people’s skulls damaged by disease or trauma – much better than existing solutions. But not only is this technology available and can do wonders for patients, but it was also regulated by the FDA – something which usually takes much more time, especially with something like this, which will virtually impact the entirety of orthopedics.

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“We see no part of the orthopedic industry being untouched by this,” said Scott DeFelice, president of Oxford Performance Materials.

DeFelice’s company is already selling 3D-printed implants overseas as a contract manufacturer, but now the big door to the US has opened – according to DeFelice, some 300-500 people would need such an implant every month, either due to some type of bone cancer or trauma.

3D printing brings a big advantage to the table: it basically digitally scans an object and then prints out a matching, 3D replica, layer by layer, with very high fidelity and detail level.

Via Discovery

Tags: 3d printingimplantorthopedics
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Mihai Andrei

Mihai Andrei

Andrei's background is in geophysics, and he's been fascinated by it ever since he was a child. Feeling that there is a gap between scientists and the general audience, he started ZME Science -- and the results are what you see today.

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