Manufacturing Better Outcomes in Cardiovascular Intervention: 3D Printing in Clinical Practice Today

AbstractPurpose of reviewDescribe and evaluate the integration of 3D printing-related innovations into current cardiovascular treatment paradigms and examine the state of regulatory and reimbursement hurdles ahead.Recent findingsMounting years of clinical experience have established the utility of printed models of patient anatomy in numerous treatment and teaching scenarios, most notably as pre- and intra-procedural planning tools guiding decision-making for congenital heart disease and catheter-based interventions. In part due to a continued lack of reimbursement and under-defined (and slow to evolve) regulatory status, these use cases remain largely investigational even as they grow increasingly routine. Patients, physicians, and/or imaging centers therefore remain burdened by the associated cost to create such models, and the perceptual and decision-making enhancements, while demonstrable and significant, still may not clearly or independently justify a potentially high cost.Simulation and implantable device applications may represent a deeper well of unrealized value in cardiovascular intervention; however, further development of these applications relies on —and is throttled by—progress in material science and tissue-engineering research. The relevance of simulation applications in recent years is also now in competition with digital analogs including augmented and virtual reality. Innovative incorporation of alternative manufacturing processes suc h as porous scaff...

Source: Current Treatment Options in Cardiovascular Medicine - October 25, 2018 Category: Cardiology Source Type: research