Additive manufacturing of medical instruments

A state-of-the-art review

Review (2019)

Authors

C. Culmone Medical Instruments & Bio-Inspired Technology - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering
G. Smit Medical Instruments & Bio-Inspired Technology - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering
P. Breedveld Medical Instruments & Bio-Inspired Technology - Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering
Research Group
Medical Instruments & Bio-Inspired Technology (Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering) (TU Delft)
Copyright: © 2019 C. Culmone, G. Smit, P. Breedveld
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addma.2019.03.015
3D printing Additive manufacturing Medical instrument Medical device Review
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Published Date

2019

Language

English

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Faculty

Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering

Department

Biomechanical Engineering

Research Group

Medical Instruments & Bio-Inspired Technology

Abstract

Goal: Additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, has begun to play a significant role in the field of medical devices. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview and classification of additively manufactured medical instruments for diagnostics and surgery by identifying medical and technical aspects. Methods: A scientific literature search on additively manufactured medical instruments was conducted using the Scopus database. Results: We categorized the relevant articles (71) by considering the novelty of each proposed instrument and its clinical application. Then, we analyzed the relevant articles by examining the reasons behind choosing additive manufacturing technology to produce instruments for diagnostics and surgery. Possible customization (27%) and Cost-effectiveness (23%) were the main reasons expressed. Technical specifications of the additive manufacturing technology and the material used were also analyzed, and a tendency of using material extrusion technology (35% of the applications) and polymeric materials (86% of the applications) was shown. Conclusions: Additive manufacturing is opening the door to a new approach in the production of medical devices, which allows the complexity of their designs to be pushed to the extreme. However, we found that technical limitations need to be tackled and important aspects such as sterilization or debris contamination are still not considered to be relevant factors during the design and fabrication process. Keeping in mind the challenges of such a new field, additive manufacturing technology can be considered as a great opportunity to provide easy access to healthcare in developing countries as well as an important step toward patient-specific medicine.