The first patient was treated with an anatomically-adapted three-dimensional printed titanium fusion implant.
EIT Emerging Implant Technologies, the company that designed the implant, is dedicated to three-dimensional printed implant solutions. Here are five things to know:
1. EIT partnered with 3D Systems in the three-dimensional design and manufacturing process.
2. The additive manufacturing method mimics the trabecular bone structure and EIT cellular Titanium with micro- and macro-nanostructural features provide high stability and speeds up bone healing and fusion.
3. Professor and Chairman of the department of neurosurgery of the Klinikum Karlsruhe in German performed the procedure. He is president of the annual meeting of the German Society of Neurosurgery.
4. The implant is designed for individualization to match the patient's anatomy and reduce typical implant-related compilations, like implant migrations, subsidence into bone or delayed fusion.
5. In the next two to three years, EIT CEO Stephanie Eisen hopes the company will be able to provide individualized series implants at reasonable costs. "Individualization will deliver better implants, faster and easier surgery and better patient outcomes," said Ms. Eisen. "The reoperation rates in spine surgery are far higher than for example with hip or knee implants. It is our mission to change this."