The Mechanical and Chemical Characterization of a 3D Printed Ear Implant
R. van Hoften (TU Delft - Mechanical Engineering)
A.A. Zadpoor – Mentor (TU Delft - Mechanical Engineering)
E.L. Fratila-Apachitei – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Mechanical Engineering)
I. Apachitei – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Mechanical Engineering)
M. J. Mirzaali – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Mechanical Engineering)
A.C. Akyildiz – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Mechanical Engineering)
A. Isaakidou – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Mechanical Engineering)
More Info
expand_more
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.
Abstract
Current treatments for inner ear disorders rely primarily on systemic drug administration, often resulting in sub-therapeutic drug concentrations and unwanted side effects. As an alternative, implantable drug-delivery devices have been proposed to enable targeted and sustained local delivery within the cochlea. This study characterizes the mechanical behavior of a novel photosensitive resin (IP-Q) and evaluates two implant designs, EarCube and BullEar, intended for fabrication by two-photon polymerization. Compression testing was used to determine the material properties of IP-Q, while finite element analysis (FEA) was employed to investigate the torsional behavior of the implants. The FEA model was experimentally validated using scaled-up stereolithography-printed EarCube specimens and accurately captured the linear torsional response. The validated model was subsequently applied to millimeter-scale implant designs fabricated from IP-Q. Comparison of the two implant concepts showed that the BullEar design exhibits substantially greater stiffness and mechanical strength than the EarCube, while variations in pore size had only a minor influence on mechanical performance. Based on these findings, the BullEar design is recommended for further development as a platform for local drug delivery to the inner ear.