Additive technologies for medicine

Will 2016 be a turning point for additive technologies in the medical field?

3dtoday based on Medical Plastics News: Why is 2016 the year for additive manufacturing in the medical sector?

In recent years, additive technologies have become one of the most popular in the world. Surprisingly, they managed to touch literally all areas of our lives and change the lives of millions of people.

Additive manufacturing is the process of combining materials and growing objects according to a 3D model, usually layer by layer. Often its dawn is correlated with industrial production, while it experienced its "boom" in the era of digital technology development.

Last year, additive manufacturing began to gain momentum in the medical field. This is partly due to the discoveries made in recent years, large investments and the emergence of new advanced technologies.

As shown in the figure, the additive manufacturing industry is steadily going up. Since 2009, its annual growth has been 25%. By the end of this year, its volume will exceed $ 5 billion. However, this is not only the merit of the industrial sector.

The lion's share of this growth is accounted for by the medical and dental markets. The reason is clear: with the advent of additive manufacturing, doctors and surgeons received unique 3D-printing equipment at their disposal and were able to significantly expand the range of their services.

Successes of additive technologies in 2015

Last year, additive technologies experienced a dawn in various branches of medicine. Its main merit lies in mass individualization, for example, in the possibility of manufacturing surgical implants according to the patient's parameters. For the first time in history, surgeons have learned how to make such implants that stand up as if poured in and almost do not cause unpleasant sensations to the patient.

It is obvious that this technology will have something to offer people in the future, when the mass installation of implants capable of adjusting to body movements begins, unlike standard implants that stand up crookedly and cause pain. These implants will help patients recover faster and return to their usual life.

In addition to implants, medical institutions have learned to produce custom orthopedic devices and visual aids for pre-surgery, which will help improve the quality of treatment.

Also last year, several major players appeared on the medical market, who contributed to its development. For example, Stratasys, one of the largest companies in the field of 3D printing, has gathered a group of scientists who are now developing 3D printing solutions for medical institutions.

And the last. In 2015, many mutually beneficial agreements were concluded. For example, the Belgian company Materialise, a well-known software developer, has entered into cooperation with many organizations, including Arcam, in order to reduce the lead times and costs of developing new products by implementing programs in all production processes.

Healthcare is developing together with additive manufacturing

Eventually, in the field of medicine, great hopes began to be pinned on additive technologies. The result is obvious: today it is one of the most funded areas of research. To a certain extent, this is due to the influence of the private healthcare sector. The rapid development of 3D printing technology and the consistently high level of demand have forced companies such as Siemens and Medtronics to invest large sums of money in research and development in order to get ahead of other players in the market.

Also, the medical industry has a certain economic advantage over other industries when it comes to innovation. Take, for example, the railway and aerospace industries. Both of these areas are connected by bureaucratic delays, rules and requirements of local authorities. In particular, the design of the aircraft must meet the standards of airworthiness.

In medicine, everything is different. Here, scientists are doing their best to push the boundaries of the impossible in an attempt to improve the quality of treatment. Of course, this area also has its own requirements for new products. For example, in the United States, every surgical implant must be approved by the FDA. There have already been several cases when it has granted permission for the production of 3D-printed implants, including 3D-printed tracheal splints, which have become a new milestone in the treatment of respiratory diseases.

At the moment, there are three areas of medicine in which a noticeable shift has recently begun due to the use of additive technologies:

• Orthopedic devices: with the advent of additive manufacturing, the spine, knee and hip joints, which are the most stressed and which most often require intensive therapy and even replacement, have become the subject of active research. It is hoped that in the future, the replacement of joints with 3D-printed artificial analogues (which will exactly match the original) will become commonplace.
• Prosthetics: prosthetic limbs have already gained some popularity, but it takes a lot of time to manufacture them, because all their parts need to be made separately. Now, with the help of 3D printing, you can make a whole prosthesis in one fell swoop, and adjust it to the individual parameters of the patient.
• Bioprinting: Bioprinting is the personification of one of the most brilliant developments of mankind today. This is the future of transplantology. Additive technologies have reached such a level of development that the artificial manufacture of tissues and organs is just around the corner. At least, that's what many researchers and scientists say.

What will be the next step of additive manufacturing in the healthcare sector?

Surgery is one of the most complex and demanding branches of medicine, and additive manufacturing cannot change this. Although robotics has been able to improve the quality of individual surgical procedures, the surgeon's experience still remains in the first place and will remain there for the foreseeable future. Nevertheless, it cannot be said that additive manufacturing cannot give surgery anything at all.

3D printing is a surgeon's tool

It is obvious that individual implants will be found in surgery more and more often, because they fit perfectly into place and do not cause inconvenience to the patient, which significantly reduces the need for repeated operations.

To begin with, it is necessary to equip hospitals and medical institutions with 3D printers. Having got 3D printers at their disposal and having learned how to work on them, surgeons will be able to make an implant and install it in the shortest possible time. Also, the use of additive technology will help reduce the cost of the operation. In countries where there are not enough specialists, the introduction of 3D printers and conducting appropriate training will help surgeons save millions of lives.

Increasing availability of biocompatible materials

With the advent of 3D-printed implants, the need for biocompatible materials has increased. Fortunately, this industry has also developed very much in recent years. Today, plastic is considered the most affordable material, but you can't make an implant out of it: it's too toxic. That's why researchers turned to metal, and 3D printers for printing with metals began to appear on the medical market, mostly thanks to the efforts of such large companies from Germany and Sweden as EOS, SLM and Arcam. With the expansion of the range of biocompatible materials, the possibilities of implants are also growing.

Expiration of patents and reduction of the cost of innovative technologies

And finally, let's talk about patents. Most discoveries in the field of additive technologies are protected by patent laws. Nevertheless, in the near future, the validity period of many patents will come to an end, and manufacturers will have a chance to update their developments for free and even come up with something new.

So, what we see. Additive manufacturing confidently captures different areas of our life. Due to the reduction of equipment costs and the development of plastic production in China, the total cost of additive manufacturing has been sharply reduced recently. This is a very important moment for various industries, in particular medical, because now funds can be used for the discovery and development of new technologies.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  15.06.2016