Jun 4, 2015 | By Alec

Regular readers will have doubtlessly noticed that 3D printers are slowly but certainly finding their way into hospitals everywhere. Only yesterday, we saw how Brazilian doctors 3D printed a titanium implant for a young woman. However, one Russian startup company called Zdravprint (Russian for Healthprint) proves that you don’t need an industrial-level metal 3D printer to help patients; you can just use a regular Ultimaker Replicator 2.

If the name of Zdravprint sounds familiar, it could be because we reported on them before. A few months ago, this Russian startup co-founded by Fedor Aptekarev, announced that they were developing a unique line of 3D printed customizable plastic casts. These are not only waterproof and breathable, but also promised to “help you avoid the annoying itchiness”. Well, they have since begun with an even more systematic approach, having teamed up with the NNIITO hospital in Nizhny Novgorod, a major city to the east of Moscow. In collaboration with NNIITO, they are not just 3D printing useful casts, but also finger splints, surgical models that increase the success rate of surgeries and even casting molds for implants. And all of that with a 3D printer you and I also use.

This collaboration started just 2 months ago, when Zdravprint and doctors began integrating 3D printed applications into their medical practices. ‘For a start, we supplied them with a Makerbot Replicator 2 and a pair of tablets with our app preinstalled,’ Fedor tells us. ‘They used the app to input biometric parameters of the patient, and generate a 3d model of a finger splint in our cloud customizer. This is sent to the printer and in a time span of just 5 to 30 minutes an individual splint is ready to be applied to the injured phalanx.’

These applications proved such a hit with doctors and patients alike, that Zdravprint were soon asked to help create a set of 3D printed models for their cloud customizer to make the rendering easier than ever. ‘The doctors themselves soon found more uses for the printer. In many cases (especially in orthopedic surgery for children), the CT scan that appears on the monitor screen is not enough to plan an optimal surgical procedure. But with our help, doctors from various departments started 3D printing tactile illustrations of a patient’s CT scan,’ Fedor says. These are used to make surgery easier, faster and optimize success rates.

All of these, amazingly, are produced with a regular desktop FDM 3D printer. But as you might recall, we included implants in that list as well, which surely cannot be simply made out of extrudable plastic. And well, they’re not. As Fedor explains, they were recently also invited to upgrade the technology of producing individual bone replacement implants. ‘Currently these are based on Rekost biopolymer. First we model and 3d print a casting mold out of dissolvable filaments that fits the bone defect. Then the biopolymer is injected into the mold. After it hardens the mold is dissolved in appropriate liquid and the implant is sent to pre-surgery testing and cleaning,’ he says. This is the first procedure enabling doctors to make immediately make implants in the hospital.

The fantastic work by Zdravprint illustrates exactly what can be done with even a regular desktop FDM 3D printer, and more is forthcoming. Among others, they are building a large-XY 3d printer capable of 3D printing  braces for the knee, elbow and shoulder, while they are also eyeing an international audience. ‘We received requests for this technology to be integrated in hospitals outside Russia, and we are currently working on regulatory procedures,’ Fedor tells us. They are doing the same for their web-based platform healthprint.io and making it suitable for an international audience, so before you know it we could be seeing desktop FDM 3D printers in hospitals everywhere.

 

 

Posted in 3D Printing Applications

 

 

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Ed wrote at 6/4/2015 9:08:07 PM:

Come on. that's a MAKERBOT Replicator 2. Otherwise, great article! Thank you.



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