Efficacy of eluted antibiotics through 3D printed femoral implants.

Efficacy of eluted antibiotics through 3D printed femoral implants. Biomed Microdevices. 2019 Jun 15;21(3):51 Authors: Benmassaoud MM, Kohama C, Kim TWB, Kadlowec JA, Foltiny B, Mercurio T, Ranganathan SI Abstract Costs associated with musculoskeletal diseases in the United States account for 5.7% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (Weinstein et al. 2018). As such, there is a need to pursue new ideas in orthopaedic implants that can decrease cost and improve patient care. In the recent years, 3D printing of polymers using Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) and metals using Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) has opened several exciting possibilities to create customized orthopaedic implants. Such implants can be engineered to release antibiotics in a controlled manner by infusing the drug into the material during manufacturing stage. However, the prevalence of high temperature could impact the anti-bacterial effectiveness of the eluted antibiotics in such implants. An alternative approach to circumvent this issue would be to modify the implant geometry to incorporate built-in design features such as micro-channels and reservoirs in which antibiotics can be introduced prior to the surgical procedure. Irrespective of the approach used, the ability of 3D printed orthopaedic implants to elute antibiotics, and the rate of elution are not well understood. The purpose of this article is to study the elution of doxycycline through 3D printed f...
Source: Biomedical Microdevices - Category: Biomedical Engineering Authors: Tags: Biomed Microdevices Source Type: research