Hospital uses 3D printed orthopedic implants (China Daily) Using a printer to produce lifesaving medical implants and body parts might sound like science fiction, but it is already a reality in China. Peking University Third Hospital, a top hospital in China, recently announced that its Orthopedics Department has been using enhanced implants produced by a 3-D printer in a clinical trial, with promising results. "We started clinical trials on 3-D produced implants late last year, and now we have used dozens of such implants in more than 50 patients," said Liu Zhongjun, director with the department. "All the patients recover very well. Nobody seems to have any undesirable side effects or adverse reaction." The process of 3-D printing, or additive printing, applies successive layers of material indifferent shapes to make a three-dimensional solid object from a digital model. For the implants, the material used is titanium, a special metal that has been used for orthopedic implants for decades. […]
The Orthopedics Industry 