3D printing an additive manufacturing technique, allowing for rapid prototyping in many industries. To date, medical applications have generally been within a research or industry environment, as the costs (expertise, software and equipment) have been prohibitive. We have established a means by which 3D printing of bones can be achieved quickly, cost-effectively and accurately from standard computer tomography (CT) digital imaging and communications in medicine (DICOM) data. CT DICOM data of a malunited forearm fracture were manipulated using open-source software (no cost) and a 3D model was produced by selective-laser-sintering. The entire process took 7 days (total cost £77). This process and the resultant model were then assessed for overall accuracy. This sequential methodology provides ready and economical access to a technology that is valuable for preoperative templating/rehearsal in complex 3D reconstructive cases.
Rapid prototyping (RP), especially useful in surgical specialities involving critical three-dimensional relationships, has recently become cheaper to access both in terms of file processing and commercially available printing resources. One potential problem has been the accuracy of models generated. We performed computed tomography on a cadaveric human patella followed by data conversion using open source software through to selective-laser-sintering of a polyamide model, to allow comparative morphometric measurements (bone No significant differences in the dimensional measurements could be demonstrated. These data provide us with optimism as to the accuracy of the technology, and the feasibility of using RP cheaply to generate appropriate models for operative rehearsal of intricate orthopaedic procedures.
