3D-Printed Scaffold Used in Treatment for Patient With Gunshot Wound

Sometimes it seems that the uses of 3D printing in the medical field are growing by the day. Beyond surgical planning and training, increasingly additive manufacturing is being used for implants and in surgical procedures to heal traumatic injuries. The latest case of this comes from the Hannover Medical School, Clinic for Trauma Surgery, where a customized, resorbable 3D-printed bone replacement scaffold, made by BellaSeno, was used to treat a third degree open infected fracture due caused by a gunshot injury.

Prior to this, BellaSeno, an ISO 13485-certifield clinical-stage medical device company, was perhaps best known for its regenerative implants. Its work in breast implants for women who have had to have mastectomies as a result of breast cancer is especially notable. Now the German company (which also has a subsidiary in Brisbane, Australia) has branched out into the fields of trauma and orthopedics with this latest case.

X-ray images (AP and lateral view) of the right forearm: (a) at the time of admission; (b) after 1st operation; and (c) before bone reconstructive surgery

Making a 3D-Printed Replacement Scaffold

Carried out in October 2023, the procedure in question was to reconstruct a 14 cm segmented bone defect of the radial shaft. This long section of bone spans from the neck to the radial tuberosity, a significant portion of the arm. Before treatment at Hannover Medical school, the patient had already undergone eleven surges to close the wound, but the fracture had only been stabilized by a ring fixator as the size of the injury posed a problem. The final stage was the integration of this bone replacement scaffold that was designed to reabsorb in into the body.