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14th Triennial Congress of the International Federation of Societies for Surgery of the Hand (IFSSH), 11th Triennial Congress of the International Federation of Societies for Hand Therapy (IFSHT)

17.06. - 21.06.2019, Berlin

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Patient specific surgical implants and prosthesis made of 3D printed PEEK

Meeting Abstract

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  • presenting/speaker Philipp Honigmann - Kantonsspital Baselland, Handchirurgie, Liestal, Switzerland
  • Neha Sharma - Department of Oral- and Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland
  • Uwe Popp - Apium Additive Technologies GmbH, Karlsruhe, Germany
  • Brando Okolo - Apium Additive Technologies GmbH, Karlsruhe, Germany
  • Florian Thieringer - Universitätsspital Basel, Klinik für Mund-, Kiefer- und Gesichtschirurgie, Basel, Switzerland

International Federation of Societies for Surgery of the Hand. International Federation of Societies for Hand Therapy. 14th Triennial Congress of the International Federation of Societies for Surgery of the Hand (IFSSH), 11th Triennial Congress of the International Federation of Societies for Hand Therapy (IFSHT), 11th Triennial Congress of the International Federation of Societies for Hand Therapy (IFSHT). Berlin, 17.-21.06.2019. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2020. DocIFSSH19-1671

doi: 10.3205/19ifssh0383, urn:nbn:de:0183-19ifssh03832

Published: February 6, 2020

© 2020 Honigmann et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. See license information at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Outline

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Objectives/Interrogation: Additive Manufacturing (AM) is rapidly gaining acceptance in the healthcare sector. Three-dimensional (3D) virtual surgical planning, fabrication of anatomical models and patient specific implants (PSI) are well-established processes in the surgical fields. Poly-ether-ether-ketone (PEEK) has been used, mainly in reconstructive surgeries as a reliable alternative to other alloplastic materials for the fabrication of PSI. Recently, it has become possible to fabricate PEEK PSI with Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) technology. 3D printing of PEEK using FFF allows construction of almost any complex design geometries in a cost-effective manner, within a short time-frame, even in an in-house 3D printin setup.

Methods: The FFF 3D printer used in our research is a prototype of the Apium P220 (Apium Additive Technologies GmbH, Karlsruhe, Germany). Patient's data in DICOM format is processed in a medical modeling software program and a virtual 3D anatomical model is created. With further processing & designing, the PSI is constructed and exported as an STL file which is sent to the 3D printer for fabrication of PSI.

Results and Conclusions: 3D printed PEEK PSI have a smooth finish and were without any irregularities. No black-specks formation nor discoloration (improper crystallization) were detected in the test parts. All of the 3D printed parts passed a certified sterilization test without any deformation. The preliminary tests confirmed the feasibility of fabricating 3D printed PEEK PSI by FFF.