Surgeons in Australia are researching the use of 3D printing and robotics to create bone implants to help treat cancer. Precise wound-specific implants could be printed mid-operation to replace removed cancerous bone.

In Australia, a 5-year collaboration between the Australian Government, RMIT University in Melbourne, the University of Technology Sydney, St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne and medical tech company Stryker aims to bring advanced medical technologies to the operating theater.

The initiative, known as Just-in-Time Implants, leverages 3D printing and advanced robotics to dramatically reduce implant waiting times and improve the outcome for patients undergoing treatment for bone cancer.

Some AU$12-million in research — funded in part by Stryker, and the Innovative Manufacturing Cooperative Research Center — went into developing a surgical pipeline that gives surgeons treating bone cancer great agility in the operating theater.

3D Printed Bone Implants: All-in-One Operation

As the name suggests Just-in-Time Implants provides implants… just in time.

Describing how it all works, Professor Peter Choong of St Vincent’s Hospital said: “By combining specialized imaging techniques, 3D printing and the accuracy of robotic assisted surgery, we are aiming to deliver a personalized implant in time for the surgeon to remove the cancer and repair the patient’s bone in the one operation,”

From what we can gather, the act of removing the cancerous parts of the bone is performed with precision by the robotic half of the procedure. While this is happening, a 3D printer beside the operating theater fabricates a biocompatible structure. This structure can then be implanted to fill the void. All in the same operation.

Traditionally patients may be waiting six weeks for custom implants. And while waiting, growing scar tissue and other variables may have left them unusable or a poor fit. By 3D printing implants on the spot, this will eliminate the need for successive surgery, improving patients’ quality of life.

For a procedure that might otherwise require limb amputation, Choong is hopeful for this new research. “This process will expand the surgical options available to patients and surgeons and increase the potential for limb saving surgery.”

Source: 9News