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Materialise, Trailblazer in Rapid Implant Manufacturing
The implant industry more and more requires individual solutions; the market is driven by flexibility, cost and quality. Rapid Manufacturing (RM) technologies can fulfill these needs perfectly. Latest evolutions, both in RM and the software supporting it, have paved the way towards use in the medical field. With this new technology, it is possible to create a patient-specific implant with Materialise' different software packages. Once your design is completed, you can have it printed for use during surgery.
The number of patients treated with a custom implant is increasing quickly. The use of rapid manufactured implants has proven to reduce operation time and patient discomfort. Moreover, this technology results in freedom of design and functional integration in the development of operational devices and implants, but also reduced lead times.
Why use Materialise software for implant design?
Conventional implants are made of relatively flexible material, which means that they can be shaped and reshaped to fit during surgery. This shaping process can take a lot of time in the operating room. Thanks to Mimics and 3-matic software a custom implant can be designed in advance, thus reducing the length of the surgery. With Mimics it is possible to work directly on the scanned patient-specific data. It takes only minutes to transform the data into a complete 3D computer model.
Whereas conventional CAD-systems require lengthy processes to prepare the scanned data for implant design, Materialise' 3-matic software completely eliminates these processes, allowing the user to design directly on the scanned data. A further advantage of working with 3-matic is the ability to combine organic, scanned shapes together with engineering components (such as fixtures and screws).
Rapid Implant Manufacturing Forum
Materialise, as a pioneer in this domain, makes great efforts to help these technologies mature to evolve from the contemporary experimental phase to actual applications. With our technologies and research, we try to set standards for certified, validated customized implants and instruments.
The Rapid Implant Manufacturing Forum in Leuven, September 12, was our first step in this direction. Bringing together some key opinion leaders in the industry to discuss the latest developments and see how we can evolve in the future, this forum has definitely opened the gate towards certified, validated customized implants and instruments.
The second edition of the Rapid Implant Manufacturing Forum will take place in Vienna, Austria, May 30, 2008. The forum is part of the sixth annual international Materialise Medical Innovations Conference.
Read more about Rapid Implant Manufacturing in the following cases:
Successful jaw implant surgery through advanced virtual planning
A man who suffered from an infection of his conventional jaw implant is smiling again. He received a new, custom-fit implant that could be designed by using Mimics and 3-matic software. This case clearly illustrates that using rapid manufacturing technology enables faster, more accurate, better planned implant surgeries than is possible with conventional techniques.
3-matic Assists in True Rapid Design and Manufacturing of a Custom Skull Implant
3-matic was used to design a custom skull implant to perfectly match the patient's cranial defect. The case describes the different steps taken by implant engineers M. Beerens and P. Laeven (IDEE) to reach the final design. The implant is fabricated by Arcam using EBM technology. Using 3-matic for the design of this skull implant, has decreased the design time by 68%. The option of designing a custom implant makes performing an operation easier on the surgeon and can result in a 50% reduction of the time needed in the operating theatre.