How 3D printing can revolutionise the medical profession

Before the vehicle that she was travelling in flipped over and trapped her right leg, Leakhena Laing was a happy teenager who enjoyed climbing trees and playing football with friends. After her limb was amputated, she could only sit and watch.

“It was difficult to even get a glass of water. I felt hopeless, very sad and embarrassed to be around other people,” says Laing, who was forced to abandon school after the accident nearly four years ago.

She used crutches for two years, before receiving a below-knee (transtibial) prosthetic plaster limb, which improved the quality of her life, although it meant regular visits to a clinic in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital, nearly 30 miles away from her home in Borset district, for refittings.

Today, aged 18, Laing’s part of a ground-breaking trial by the Canadian non-profit social enterprise Nia Technologies, aiming to produce high quality mobility devices for children and young people more quickly than the conventionally produced plaster cast method – using a 3D printer and other 3D technology.

The World Health Organisation estimates that 30 million people in low-income countries need prosthetic limbs. There is hope that 3D scanning and printing may be able to help.

Pioneering techniques

“Our project leap frogs current developed world fabrication techniques by using 3D printing to produce devices that are actually being used by patients,” says Dr Matt Rotto, Nia’s chief science officer. In the trial that 30 Cambodian children and young people, including Laing, are participating in, Nia is testing “3D PrintAbility”, which combines scanning, modelling and printing technologies to produce two types of mobility devices: transibial (below-the-knee) sockets and ankle foot orthoses (AFOs or leg braces).

The computer process enables medical staff to save work (digital files), share them with colleagues for review and keep a digital record of a patient’s history of devices. As Rotto describes, “what that literally looks like is a Google docs for prosthetists, where they upload the digital model they made. They can then send a request to someone saying ‘hey can you take a look at this thing that I just made?’”

Nia’s clinical study of 3D technologies for the production of lower-limb mobility devices, being conducted in three developing countries, is the first of its kind and scale anywhere, with others in other parts of the world still in an exploratory phase or not working with clinical partners or patients yet.

“We’re trying to give clinicians tools to make them more efficient because there’s a tremendous shortage of prosthetists and orthotists in the world,” says Nia president and CEO Jerry Evans, stressing the technology was not designed to replace them.

Speeding up the process

In the developed world, a quarter of prosthetics and orthotics clinics which once used conventional plaster casts – which usually take between one to two weeks to deliver – have replaced them with computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (Cad/Cam) equipment for custom-made devices that can be delivered within two days, say Vorum.

The company, which pioneered Cad/Cam equipment for custom-made prosthetics, orthotics and footwear nearly three decades ago, predicts 3D technology will be used in combination by almost all of these areas within a decade.

London-based startup Andiamo was founded by Naveed Parvez and wife Samiya Parvez in 2014, after a harrowing and frustrating experience acquiring orthotics for their late son, Diamo. Andiamo are producing and trialling their hand splits, AFOs and Ground Reaction Ankle Foot Orthotics (Grafos) using 3D printing technologies, and aim to offer their services to the public early next year. Down the track Andiamo have global expansion in their sights, but warn there are risks considering the temperature and humidity of materials that are “still quite poor”, among other concerns.

“By making sure (the technology) works in the UK first we know that it will have a solid foundation to be used elsewhere,” says Naveed Parvez.

Revolutionising the industry

3D printing is having a “transformational effect on the medical industry”, especially the prosthetics and orthotics sector, but also in orthodontics, says Joe Kempton, an analyst from global technology market firm Canalys. He estimates total spending on 3D printing, including printers, materials and services, will reache around USD $ 947m in 2016, and jump to $ 1.6bn by 2018.

“3D printed prosthetics development is being used more and more in hospitals and clinics worldwide,” says Kempton. “It is becoming more common than not for orthodontist clinics to make use of 3D printing, and this will only continue to grow in the future.”

“The ability to quickly repair and adapt any part of the prosthetics is incredibly useful, especially as the body changes.”

In Cambodia, Laing is hoping new technology could build upon what a plaster cast has already given her, that is the ability to “cook for myself, fetch water for my family, walk and do other things”.

“I am very happy to be part of this study,” says Laing.

She still dreams of what she intended before her accident, to become a beautician.

“I want to continue my education and open a salon,” she says.

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How 3D printing can revolutionise the medical profession

Making use of 3D Printing And Layout To Change The Way We Search At Disability

The engineering concerned in producing artificial limbs has come a lengthy way in the last handful of decades. We have now witnessed a paralyzed guy kick a soccer ball at the opening ceremonies of the World Cup, and a double-amputee snowboarding champion stun the audience on Dancing With The Stars. Today’s prosthetics include advanced sensors and components of robotics and nanotechnology, and there are some incredible developments taking place with integrating the physique and the thoughts.

However for all the progress that has been made, these devices nevertheless search cold, industrial, and impersonal.

For Travis Ricks, an amazingly completed athlete, advocate, and educator – and amputee of eleven years, layout has been the missing ingredient. Offered prosthetics search clearly fake, but, he says, “you’re caught with what they give you: skinny legs and generic covers.” Whilst there have been some flashy presentations with soaring rhetoric, there is not actually considerably out there that seems to be excellent and is offered to buyers at a sensible value level.

UNYQ (pronounced: special), a commence-up primarily based in San Francisco and Seville that is barely a month outdated, has set out to modify that by offering cost-effective 3D printed prosthetic leg covers, known as “fairings,” immediately to shoppers. The firm was co-founded by legendary entrepreneur Eythor Bender, who is ideal known for establishing a prototype bionic exoskeleton that allows paraplegics to stroll yet again. Bender, who has worked with the disabled for above twenty many years, was frustrated by the lack of consideration of type in the medical device growth procedure. Despite all the progress made in other regions, the units nevertheless look more or less like a “wooden stick.”

Bender would like to challenge what we believe is possible with prosthetics. Employing 3D printers, UNYQ can capture the individuality of a man or woman whilst supplying them with an precisely symmetrical substitute limb. The identical way that 3D printing has revolutionized the way we develop hearing aids, Bender believes that something equivalent is feasible with artificial limbs.

Right here, he draws a fascinating parallel to eyeglasses: we would in no way presume that every person wants to wear the very same pair of glasses, we worth style since they reflect our personality – and just as prosthetics need to do.

The lack of alternatives has been aggravating for medical doctors as properly. “As a clinician, and as a female as nicely, I’ve by no means been capable to have a excellent option to supply sufferers in terms of cosmetic covers,” says Katie Taylor, a prosthetist who is joining UNYQ as their Clinical Director. “Historically they’ve been produced with foam and a plastic covering that doesn’t search like genuine skin. They get dirty, they are tough to change, and quite costly. Frequently occasions, folks just really do not put on them. For the initial time I’ll be ready to say, here’s an selection for you that is really really great. Alternatively of feeling self-conscious, they can feel fashionable, trendy, and stunning.”

Although the fairings themselves are extremely fashionable, their higher importance has much more to do with high quality of lifestyle. Prosthetics can at times expense many tens of thousands of dollars, and any efforts that support to ease their maintenance or enhance their utilization is welcome by everyone. But most importantly, it can change the way amputees feel about themselves by directly addressing the psychological trauma that they suffer from their disability.

With UNYQ, Bender’s objective is to give choice back to consumers in a area that is been historically dominated by intermediaries. Ordering the fairings immediately is a shockingly easy process: you choose a style from their site (or design and style your own), take eight photos with your telephone, wait four to six weeks for delivery, and, four screws later on, your prosthetic leg now seems to be and feels totally diverse.

But the globe is complete of promising technologies that never ever make an affect due to the fact they in no way turn into accessible to the folks that want them. When describing his 2011 exoskeleton demonstration at TED Bender struck a surprisingly sad tone, “I felt like I was teasing them.” He described how he was he was in a position to “turn no into yes,” but the technologies was so pricey that it would not be in a position to make a widespread impact for a lot of many years to come. For him, that just does not reduce it anymore – bold techno-utopian pronouncements by themselves are not ample.

To that finish, his firm announced right now that they are cutting all of their costs in half – with their merchandise line now starting up at just $ 500. Thanks to greater-than-anticipated demand, improved sourcing, and advancements in approach as they’ve scaled up, Bender now feels fully comfy calling his merchandise reasonably priced. He hopes 1 day to be capable to print a lot more of the leg with greater supplies, and well as expand to other elements of the physique. “The physique is a very difficult issue to replace,” he reflected as he laid out his ideas to use “human-centric design” to blur the boundaries of style, technologies, and medication.

As for Ricks, he’s acquiring much more involved with UNYQ in an try to get this out to more folks, saying that “he loves wearing the solution.” He feels far more confident when he has his fairings on. It utilized to be that anything as easy as putting on a pair of pants could be extremely frustrating. He would get insecure when it was windy, but now his legs are symmetrical. The product does not replace what he’s misplaced, but it does give him dignity, control, and pride.

Ricks explained, the modify is drastic, “I get stopped by folks who inform me how excellent my fairings look. In eleven many years of currently being an amputee, I’ve never had people tell me that ‘my leg is badass.’  They are saying that my disability is really cool.”

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(Supply: UNYQ) In 2011 Ricks became the Triathlete National Champion at the USA Paratriathlon National Championships in New York City.

(Supply: UNYQ) Lacey Henderson, at the moment the US record holder in her competitors classes for the 200m and the prolonged jump, demonstrates off her fairings.

Making use of 3D Printing And Layout To Change The Way We Search At Disability

Personal computer 3D printing used to generate new hip

Douglas Dunlop, consultant orthopaedic surgeon, mentioned: “The benefits to the patient by way of this pioneering procedure are numerous.

“The titanium utilised to make the hip is much more resilient and has been printed to match the patient’s precise measurements – this need to increase match and could decrease the chance of obtaining to have another surgery.

“The bone graft material that has been employed has outstanding biocompatibility and strength and will fill the defect behind the bone nicely, fusing it all together.”

Professor Richard Oreffo, at the University of Southampton, mentioned: “The 3D printing of the implant in titanium, from CAT scans of the patient and stem cell graft is cutting edge and delivers the probability of enhanced outcomes for individuals.

“Fractures and bone loss due to trauma or illness are a considerable clinical and socioeconomic problem. Growing bone at the stage of injury alongside a hip implant that has been made to the precise match of the patient is fascinating and offers genuine opportunities for improved recovery and quality of existence.”

Mrs Richard said: “The way medicine has evolved is amazing. I hope that this will be the final time that I have to have a hip operation. I truly feel enthusiastic to have this pioneering surgery and I can see what a benefit it will have to me.”

The 3D printing technique has previously been utilized to develop a new jaw and a new pelvis for sufferers.

A similar technique has also been employed to develop a 3D printed customised hip substitute for a 15 year outdated Swedish woman by Belgium-based implant company Mobelife, enabling her to stroll once more.

Personal computer 3D printing used to generate new hip

The up coming phase: 3D printing the human physique

The BioInk is loaded into a NovoGen MMX bioprinter along with a cartridge of Hydrogel, a type of synthetic matrix efficiently employed as a sort of scaffolding for developing 3D layers of cells. The printer prints a layer of the water-based mostly gel, followed by a layer of BioInk cells, and so on. The layered calls naturally fuse with each other as the layers and constructed upon.

^{The printer with its BioInk and Hydrogel cartridges}

As soon as the desired amount of layers is printed, the printed tissue is left to mature and increase as a framework, for the duration of which time the hydrogel is eliminated. Other researchers experimenting with bioprinting have employed a sugar and water solution as a form of help for the vascular structures to great good results.

At present printed tissues are usually used for health care analysis introducing disease to check how the tissue reacts and how future treatments might be developed. In the future, it is extremely most likely 3D printers will be employed to develop basic tissues for implanting into current organs and partial organs. The printing of total organs, if accepted, could be a actuality within the subsequent decade.

Organovo recently bioprinted its first 3D liver tissue for testing purposes, and can generate 24 strips of liver tissues inside a single plate. In 2010 the organization also printed the very first human blood vessel with no the use of scaffolds.

They estimate it would at present take 10 days to print an common sized liver and lobe, but estimate the velocity and efficiency with which they could create such tissue structures will greatly advance in the long term. After all, it would at present consider one,690,912,929,600 hours to print a liver for each member of the human race employing the process in its current kind.

In the indicate time, Organovo plans to industry and launch its 3D liver tissue to pharmaceutical organizations and analysis labs by the finish of December, and is presently establishing bioprinted breast cancer tissues alongside lung and muscle tissues. With the engineering advancing at such a fee, entire organs and bodies made by 3D printers is becoming a concrete actuality, rather than a freaky sci-fi concept.

^{The bionic ear in all its glory}

In August final year the Hangzhou Dianzi University in China announced it had produced biomaterial 3D printer Regenovo, which printed a little operating kidney that lasted 4 months. Earlier in 2013, a two-12 months-previous little one in the US acquired a windpipe built with her own stem cells, and Princeton University printed a ‘bionic ear’ employing a modified ink-jet printer onto a petri dish.

Ethically and morally, issues have been raised over ensuring the high quality of the organs, and who controls the right to generate them. Other folks declare 3D printing human parts additional blurs the line between guy and machine, giving us the correct to ‘play God’ on an unprecedented scale. But there is no denying that bioprinting has the potential to revolutionise medicine and healthcare past what appeared feasible even 20 years in the past.

The up coming phase: 3D printing the human physique