Within the past few decades, 3D printing has become an increasingly useful tool for many industries by helping create consumer and industrial products. It has been especially transformative for the healthcare sphere by enabling the creation of customized medical devices, prosthetics, and organ models tailored precisely to the specific needs of individual patients. By allowing for rapid prototyping and personalization, 3D printing enhances surgical precision, accelerates the development of new treatments, and significantly improves patient outcomes. The technology continues to evolve, increasing its potential to address complex medical challenges and driving innovation in personalized medicine. Here are some of the major ways 3D printing is currently aiding medical professionals:
- Surgical Tools: Surgical tools can be made using 3D printing, increasing surgeons’ accessibility to instruments customized to specific procedures or a patient’s anatomy. This degree of personalization reduces the risk of errors, minimizes tissue damage, and accelerates patient recovery. Additionally, guides and templates can be made to assist in precise incisions and implant placement. These informational tools allow surgeons to appropriately and accurately plan a patient’s surgery and practice ahead of time. Thus, surgical procedures are becoming much more streamlined which benefits both patients and healthcare professionals.
- Prosthetics: Prosthetics is one of the areas most positively affected by 3D printing. Traditional prosthetics are often expensive and may need frequent manual adjustments. With 3D printing, prosthetic limbs can be rapidly produced and customized to specific patients based on their needs. It is also more much more cost-efficient and allows for more intricate structure designs, leading to improved aesthetic outcomes. This is especially beneficial for amputees, making them far more desirable compared to traditional prosthetics. Cost also does not have to as much of a concern for patients, especially children who quickly grow out of their prosthetics and are in need of new ones. Since they can be created within a day and are customizable to the patient’s needs, more patients can be helped at faster rates. Patients also tend to be more comfortable with how their 3D-printed prosthetic appears, further increasing their appeal over traditional prosthetics.
- Implants: 3D printing allows for the creation of patient-specific devices that are extremely precise regardless of the type of implant. The customized implant is a better fit and reduces the risk of complications, thereby improving patient outcomes. The technology allows surgeons to produce complex implants rapidly, which reduces surgery time and post-operation discomfort. This also eliminates the invasive methods used to perform certain surgeries.
- Anatomical Models for Surgical Planning and Practice: Medical training and pre-surgical planning greatly benefit from 3D printing through the creation of anatomical replicas. These models are generated from patient imaging data and help surgeons study the organ or defect, plan the surgical strategy, and improve the outcome. Because surgeons are able to simulate complex procedures on these tangible models, their confidence and skills can be drastically improved. This makes surgeries more efficient and precise, which also reduces risks and other complications.
- Organ and Tissue Printing: There is ongoing research assessing the use of 3D bioprinters to craft replicas of tissues and organs, such as kidneys and livers. The ability to create artificial organs that mimic the structure and function of natural organs can be groundbreaking, providing a new approach to the treatment of injuries and diseases and a possible solution to global organ shortages. Additionally, organs created using from a patient’s stem cells should not evoke much of an immune response, making them less likely to be rejected after transplant. Disease modeling, drug testing, and organ transplantation are just a few of the many fields that can benefit from such an innovative stride in medical technology. However, there is still much more research, engineering, and regulatory/ethical approvals that are needed before this application of 3D printing becomes widely available to patients.
- Pharmaceutical Printing: Much like the 3D printing used for organ and tissue printing, pharmaceutical printing is still being extensively researched. The goal is that 3D printing can one day be used to create customized medication dosages and formulations, helping to reduce side effects and increase patient adherence.
Challenges
There are many benefits of 3D printing in medicine and healthcare. It enables adaptable designs, on-demand printing, and rapid prototyping. It decreases waste and cost and generates parts that are light and sturdy. It greatly reduces surgical time and aims to increase efficiency. However, there are disadvantages and challenges associated with this approach as well. For one, getting approval for 3D-printed medical devices and implants can be difficult and time-consuming. The 3D-printed tools need to meet safety and efficacy standards that may take longer than already standardized tools. Secondly, maintaining consistent quality with 3D-printed medical products may be difficult to guarantee, and any variability may impact the safety and reliability of the product. Additionally, there are issues in how the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) would oversee 3D printing in the medical industry. FDA regulations for medical devices need to be followed, but it becomes more difficult to do this for products made by 3D-printed products compared to standardized manufacturing. Regulatory requirements must be put in place so that the FDA can still ensure the safety and effectiveness of products intended for use on patients.
There may be challenges to 3D printing in healthcare and more research may still need to be done, but the strides that have been made are already remarkable. As the technology evolves and improves, there is no doubt that 3D printing will become as integral to the healthcare industry as it has become to various other industries.
