The utility of 3D printing for implant design for rib fracture fixation / 中华胸心血管外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective 3D printing has been used in the assistanceof surgical planning and the development of personal-ized prostheses.This study was to determine the feasibility of using a 3D printer for the purpose of producing personalized pros-theses for complex rib fracture fixation .Methods Using data from a high-resolution CT scan of 10 ribs of 3 cases with rib frac-ture, rib moldswere generated with computer software and fabricated with the 3D printer using the fused deposition modeling method.The 3D printing molds were used for custom-designed titanium plate.Results The average length of the 3D models of ribs is 8.45 cm.The mean time of fabricating models was 18.8 minutes and 4.6 gram polylactic acid was consuming on aver-age.The mean error of dimension of 3D models is less than 0.2 mm.Reshaping plates spends 3.3 minutes on average.Radio-logical follow-up for bothcases demonstrated successful fixation at 3 months.Conclusion These cases demonstrate the feasibili-ty of the use of 3D modeling and printing to develop personalizedplates and can ease the difficulty of complex rib fracture .