iCAT 2018 Invited lectures

The use of 3D printing technology in the clinical management of disease conditions is rapidly gaining popularity. Yet, best practices remain to be defined and validation studies are lacking. 

Due to the features of 3D printing that are particularly suitable for the field of orthopaedics, more and more innovative medical devices have been developed based on metal 3D printing. 

Revision hip arthroplasty presents a huge challenge in front of the surgeon because of the defects caused by the loose acetabular component. Using modern 3D planning techniques combined with additively manufactured patient-specific instruments and implants surgical problems can be foreseen and surgical outcome predicted.

Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine have been developing rapidly over the last few years, and bioprinting as a supportive technology has also seen a lot of advances. The availability of 3D bioprinters has increased substantially, however, certain challenges still prevent successful fabrication of complex tissues and other applications.

Dentofacial deformities are severe skeletal changes of the face which are connected with the functional and esthetic problems. They are corrected with surgical procedures known as orthognathic surgery. The classical 2D diagnostic procedures are more and more replaced with 3D methods.

Application of additive manufacturing in medicine has the potential to significantly improve the clinical practice in MRI-based image-guided adaptive brachytherapy (IGABT). The standard applicators available on the market do not always enable an acceptable dose coverage of a tumour and sometimes do not fit the patient anatomy.

The complex anatomy of maxillofacial skeleton increases the complexity of its reconstruction  and presents a challenge when trying to achieve acceptable functional and aesthetic outcomes. Facial skeleton provides support for the soft tissues and is crucial in determining the shape of the face. That's why bony reconstruction has to be done as precisely as possible. To achieve this goal, the bony reconstruction has to be planned

Pedicle screw placement using a freehand technique has a high incidence of pedicle perforation. The said risk can be reduced with intra-operative fluoroscopy or navigation, which have some disadvantages. A promising principle for solving most of the issues is the use of Additive Manufacturing technology. 

Additive Manufacturing (AM) in South Africa started with humble beginnings in the early 1990’s. Whilst still developing an AM industry in the country, research and industry/research relationships, complemented by well-designed technology transfer strategies, have developed into an interesting model for countries wishing to develop an AM industry, to follow.

In his talk, Ismo will describe the use of DeskArtes software tools for data preparation for Additive Manufacturing. DeskArtes has been a pioneer for AM software development since 1993 and becoming the de-facto-standard software provider for 3D Color printing in mid-2000. Since then DeskArtes has expanded its software portfolio to include support generation tools for metal.