Carpal prosthesis 2.0
Channel: General ideas and needs in the field of additive manufacturing
The carpal bones are a group of eight small bones located in the wrist, playing an important role in its movement and stability. The Lunate and Scaphoid are two of these small bones that help to support the hand and wrist during movement.
When the Lunate or the Scaphoid are damaged or diseased due to a fracture or an avascular necrosis (loss of blood supply to the bone), it can cause pain, weakness, and limited mobility.
In these difficult cases, a carpal bone prosthesis may be an innovative solution to restore function and alleviate symptoms. The prosthesis could be typically made of metal or polymer and is designed to mimic the shape and function of the original carpal bone. It will be surgically implanted into the wrist to replace the affected carpal bones.
With 3D printing, such treatment may be addressed in the future in a more effective manner as the manufacturing process is perfectly able to address medical devices with complex / anatomical shapes, thus enabling a robust and fast workflow from patient anamnesis to the effective surgery.
The idea is about the development and manufacturing of novel titanium carpal bone prosthesis using 3D printing and simplify the way such treatments are performed today.
Simplification will come from different aspects:
- Taking advantage of 3D printing will open opportunities to improve carpal prosthesis design by adding key functions, address more anatomical shapes while reducing surgical time and complexity.
- 3D printing will also accelerate the time for such an implant to be produced and delivered to the patient. This even allowing a point of care approach in the near future.
To better address such 3D printed devices there is a need to innovate in term of implant surface treatment as this aspect is of main interest in regard to cartilage abrasion and thus, the treatment quality and success.
Different post-processing options will be therefore investigated such as blasting, wet blasting, grinding and electropolishing.
This remains a challenge as Titanium is a complex material to post-process.
To implement this innovation, two hospitals (KSBL & KSGR) and m4m will collaborate to propagate this next generation titanium prostheses fabricated by additive technologies and open new opportunities for other types of titanium prostheses such as for the Talus or tarsal bones.
The two hospitals will be responsible to design the adequate carpal prostheses, m4m will be responsible to propose the correct industrialization process to manufacture such implants.
