Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and Research is calling for submissions to our collection on Safer 3D-printed personalised orthopaedic implants. Advances in computer-aided engineering, patient-specific computer models, and additive manufacturing or 3D-Printing have transformed patients' treatment through personalised solutions. Manufacturers and hospitals regularly provide patients with custom 3D-printed orthopaedics and maxillofacial implants. However, there are significant challenges to facilitating personalised medical implant commercialisation and widespread use. Firstly, regulatory frameworks for personalised implants are in their early stages. Current standards for testing off-the-shelf devices are not directly transferrable to devices designed for individual patients. Instead, future test standards could be based on patient anatomy, physiological loadings, tissue properties and even lifestyle information. Secondly, no well-defined framework or methodology supports using and increasing personalised implants' success rate. The fabrication of the implant is only the first step. Successful implantation and treatment require a comprehensive approach, including optimising individual patient pre-operative planning and surgical instruments. Thirdly, there is a significant barrier to manufacture at scale. The additive manufacturing industry for personalised medical implants is fragmented and in the early stages of adopting personalised technologies such as pre-clinical testing, virtual surgery and virtual clinical trials.
This collection of articles in the Journal of Orthopaedic Research and Surgery aims to address the three highlighted challenges in safer 3D-printed personalised orthopaedic implants. The call is open to scientific papers addressing optimal implant performance and longevity that can be tailored to individual patients and screening out devices with unacceptable safety risks to the patient. Suggestions could include,
• Clinical investigation
• Bone-implant interface
• Technologies for the design and development of implants
• Technologies for optimising implants materials, topology, and manufacturing
• Biomechanical investigation, including virtual clinical trials