Page 454 - IJB-10-1

International

Journal of Bioprinting

RESEARCH ARTICLE
Efficacy of 3D-printed customized titanium

implants and its clinical validation in foot and
ankle surgery

Yangjing Lin , Peng He , Guangyu Yang , Fuyou Wang , Liang Jia , Huaquan Fan ,
3
2
1
1
3
1
Liu Yang , Huiping Tang *, and Xiaojun Duan *
1
1
3
1 Center for Joint Surgery, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University (Army Medical
University), Chongqing 400038, China
2 Chongqing Institute of Optics and Machines, Chongqing 401122, China
3 State Key Laboratory of Porous Metal Materials, Northwest Institute for Nonferrous Metal Research,
Xi’an 710016, China
Abstract
In foot and ankle surgery, internal fixation was crucial to maintain the stability of bony
structure, and bone grafting material is commonly used to treat bone defects. With
rapid development of three-dimensional (3D) printing technology, new advances
were made in these two aspects. In this study, digital image correlation method
(DICM) data of the patient’s ankle via computed tomography (CT) examination were
obtained and imported into a series of software. The engineer cooperated with
the surgeon to design the customized implants. Ti-6Al-4V spherical metal powder
was chosen as raw material and fused together by selective electron beam melting
(SEBM), a type of 3D printing technology, to prepare the implant. The implants were
*Corresponding authors:
Huiping Tang sterilized with ethylene oxide. The customized 3D-printed implants were successfully
(thpfys@126.com) utilized in tibiotalocalcaneal (TTC) arthrodesis to maintain the bony structures at
Xiaojun Duan the functional position. In another case, the 3D-printed fusion cage was applied
(dxj9@163.com) in subtalar arthrodesis to treat bone defects. In these clinical cases, 3D-printed
Citation: Lin Y, He P, Yang G, et al. customized titanium implants helped improve the surgical operation flow, and no
Efficacy of 3D-printed customized obvious tissue reaction was observed. The successful implementation suggested
titanium implants and its clinical
validation in foot and ankle surgery. that the application of 3D printing technology to prepare customized titanium
Int J Bioprint. 2024;10(1):0125. implants would play an important role in future foot and ankle surgery.
doi: 10.36922/ijb.0125
Received: April 09, 2023 Keywords: 3D printing; Customized implants; Metal material; Ankle; Subtalar joint;
Accepted: June 17, 2023
Published Online: July 24, 2023 Surgery
Copyright: © 2023 Author(s).
This is an Open Access article
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution 1. Introduction
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, Titanium and its alloys have general applications as medical implant materials due to
provided the original work is their superior mechanical properties and excellent biocompatibility. The earliest Ti-
1
properly cited.
6Al-4V alloys applied in medical industry can be traced back to the 1950s. Nowadays,
2
Publisher’s Note: AccScience Ti-6Al-4V alloys are the most widely used titanium alloy in the making of orthopedic
Publishing remains neutral with
regard to jurisdictional claims in implant, such as artificial joint prostheses, spine pedicle screw-rod fixation system,
published maps and institutional internal fixation of screw, and steel plate. Ti-6Al-4V alloys are attractive and safe material
affiliations.
Volume 10 Issue 1 (2024) 446 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijb.0125