MTM is on a mission to empower surgeons and healthcare practitioners who repair and reconstruct the human body. The company has chosen an approach powered by additive manufacturing The Impact of 3D Printing on Surgical Instrument Development because to its creative freedom and affordability, which offer a potential to disrupt traditional medical markets.
By revolutionizing the development and application of implants, surgical tools, and preoperative models, the MTM team propels innovation in precision surgery. Conventional instrumentation systems are expensive up front, slow to develop, and frequently cause issues during the surgical procedure. By printing metal implants and polymer instrumentation that are specific to a procedure and frequently patient-specific, MTM uses The Impact of 3D Printing Surgical Instrument Development capabilities to significantly improve the delivery of surgical care.
A article Approach to Surgical Tools
Originally concentrating on 3D printed implants for cervical spine procedures, MTM is a group of highly qualified biomedical engineers and material scientists. The team encountered a persistent obstacle in the development of these new implants: instrument systems made of stainless steel that are conventionally constructed.
“We were developing an innovative implant with features that are only achievable with 3D Printing, but expecting surgeons to use a very traditional instrument system to deliver the implant,” commented Chief Technology Officer Cambre Kelly. We therefore soon saw that developing our instrument line in tandem with implant innovation would be a key distinction for us.
Opening Up New Clinical Workflows with Quick Product Creation
A crucial component of MTM approach to the development of their medical devices is now working closely with surgeons. Every surgery in specialties like orthopedic oncology is different. In contrast to standard orthopedic procedures, which aim to match the patient with pre-existing implants, cancer damages each patient’s bone differently. MTM must collaborate with surgeons from start to finish in order to provide procedure-wide specific tooling.
Tools and Planning for the Ideal Surgery
A complex surgery’s planning stage is crucial. It now makes up a significant portion of the benefits that MTM offers surgeons, and often entails the development of anatomical models and cutting guides tailored to each patient.
We had a conversation with Will Eward, MD, DVM, an orthopaedic surgical oncologist at Duke Health, to completely grasp the influence MTM has throughout the planning phase. “One of the nice things is that MTM is really good about giving us polymeric templates of not only the patient’s body, but the implant, the cutting guides, really the whole instrumentation, everything from sleeves for our drill bits to our screw holes,” he said when asked what made the preoperative planning experience at MTM special.
Fast, Accurate, and Easy to Scale
chas an amazing portfolio of metal 3D printers, manufacturing tools and implants in cobalt, chromium, and titanium alloys. The business has a print production facility with Form Series printers and other polymer equipment in addition to room-sized metal printers.
Elena Tercheria is a manager of additive manufacturing with a focus on polymer part fabrication. About 90% of polymer parts, including single-use tools and patient-specific customized devices—some of which are printed using a specially formulated resin that surgeons can see under an X-ray—are produced by her and her colleagues utilizing their fleet of Formlabs printers.
Strong Materials
In order to replace the entirely stainless steel instruments that many surgeons have used throughout their careers, MTM developed surgical instruments that blend metal and polymer components. After gamma or steam sterilization, their technical team evaluates the variety of materials to choose a polymer that can withstand threading and be used throughout the surgical operation.
For medical practitioners, Formlabs provides a library of more than thirty materials, including a variety of biocompatible materials. They are tough first and foremost. They let us print anything we want without worrying too much about the material breaking or thinning. In fact, we have observed that these are fairly resistant to impactors, cutting instruments, and drilling guides.