In 2015, 3D printing in the healthcare sector experienced a considerable boom. Skin, organs, sternum, the limits are constantly pushed back.
Could 2015 be the year of 3D printing? This is what one might think, if we look at all the three-dimensional initiatives that have been carried out in the health sector since last January.
Recently, consulting firm Fabulous estimated that the healthcare 3D printing market today is worth $ 490 million. By 2020, it could grow by 25% per year, and reach $ 2.13 billion in 2020.
The products that are gradually developed and printed to save lives are more and more varied.
Prostheses and implants
The printing of implants and prostheses is now well mastered, and is spreading rapidly in France. For example, Maxence, 6, was able to benefit this year from the first 3D printed hand prosthesis.
Suffering from agnesia of the hand, which hinders the development of the latter, the little boy received a pretty prosthesis to remove as he wished, to help him on a daily basis. He was able to choose the colors himself, and the appearance of the fingers and the palm, which the designer then transmitted to the 3D printer.
Since 2013, 2,000 hands of this type have been delivered to 37 other countries, thanks to an American NGO, Enabling the Future, which allows a low-cost distribution of these prostheses, less than 200 euros.
More recently, a titanium steroid was designed for a Spanish patient. Straight out of Australian company Anatomics, Specializing in innovative medical equipment, this prosthesis was successfully implanted in the patient, who presented a case of almost inoperable sarcoma.
Here, 3D printing has really shown its surgical interest, as it replaced the affected sternum with a prosthesis perfectly adapted to the patient’s anatomy. Unlike other prostheses, it allows to model all the complexities of the thoracic cavity of the individual.
Tissues and Organs
Printed human tissues and organs, which can be created from stem cells, are one of the most promising treatment avenues offered by 3D printing. In 2015, real progress was made, but not all of them have concrete medical applications yet.
Perhaps the most spectacular clinical intervention is the one that saved the lives of three American babies with tracheomalacia. This fatal respiratory disease has so far been hopeless for a cure. But 3D printed tracheae, a kind of tailor-made tube made from biodegradable polymers, have allowed babies to regain their health.
Three-dimensional scans of the children’s trachea and bronchi were carried out and then modeled, making it possible, as in the case of the titanium sternum, to perfectly respect the morphology of each patient.
More recently, a new method for printing structures in soft materials, developed by a team from Carnegie Mellon University in the United States, has made it possible to print a model of the femur, coronary arteries or even a embryo heart. So far, this technique has not been used in clinical cases, but it holds great hopes for the future.
3d drugs
Last field of application, drugs. For the first time in 2015, the FDA, the American Pharmaceutical Market Regulatory Agency, authorized the marketing of the first drug produced in 3D.
It is epileptic patients who should benefit from it. The authorization concerns Spritam, a tablet to dissolve in water and prescribed to treat seizures. Aprecia Pharmaceuticals, which produces it, could bring it to market in 2016.
The coming year promises to be just as prolific as the one that is coming to an end for the healthcare 3D printing sector. New initiatives should emerge, with increasingly broad clinical perspectives.
.