Use of additively manufactured patient-specific instruments in clinical praxis

Abstract

Using a combination of Computer-Assisted Design (CAD), expert surgical knowledge and Additive-Manufacturing (AM) technologies, it is nowadays possible to offer patients an individualized treatment that is better planned, more predictable and more reliable than traditional surgical procedures. Regardless of the specifics of different medical fields, planning is common to all of them when it comes to an invasive intervention into the human body. Surgical planning is always based on diagnostic data that need to be gathered, presented and evaluated in a way that best suits the final purpose. To understand the general needs of the surgical planning process, several surgical cases have been explored and analyzed in the Additive Manufacturing Laboratory (AML) at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maribor over the past 10 years. The common denominator in all cases is the reconstruction of diagnostic data into a 3D model that is later used for planning and is, after the confirmation of the planned therapeutic parameters, transformed into tangible surgical equipment by means of AM. The 3D planning process has a lot of benefits but requires some skills uncommon among the medical experts. The results of the presented research summarize the particularities of medical 3D planning and provide guidelines for the wider adoption of medical 3D planning and the use of additively manufactured patient-specific instruments.