Chinese Doctors Implant 3-D Printed Vertebrae in Boy

Commercially available spine implants generally work well, but for special situations like those involving smaller pediatric patients, they can be inadequate. To address the issue, researchers at Peking University Third Hospital in China turned to 3-D printing.

When doctors in China recently evaluated a 12-year-old boy named Minghao, they discovered a malignant tumor on his spinal cord, according to CBS news. In order to treat this tumor, part of Minghao’s cervical spine needed to be removed and reconstructed. To fill the void left by the removed bone, researchers used a custom implant fabricated by 3-D printing.

The vertebral implant was composed of titanium, a common material in spinal orthopedics. This implant, however, was created using a titanium powder that was built layer by layer, according to Forbes. Using imaging data collected during diagnosis, a nearly exact replica of the patient’s vertebrae was generated using 3-D printing.

The implant was placed between the first and third cervical vertebrae and included no fixation devices like screws or glue, CBS reported. Instead, the implant design included pores, or small holes that would allow integration of the bone into the implant, thus securing it. Minghao will have to wear special head gear to prevent too much motion during healing, but eventually the bone itself should hold the implant in place.

“Although the probability is very low, it is possible that under long-term pressure from inside the body, traditional implants might plug into bones gradually, or become detached from bones,” Liu Zhongjun, director of the orthopedics department at Peking University, told Forbes. “But there will be no such problems for 3-D printed implants.”

3-D printing is gaining an incredible amount of attention as a fabrication method for implantable devices. Very recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced the clearance of a 3-D printed facial implant system. In addition, other advances continue as the 3-D printing technology also has been studied for possibly printing implants that also release drugs, or bioactive agents.