Two years on from a world-first surgery, Reuben Lichter (29) is still defying the odds, able to walk again after the implantation of our 3D-printed implant for tibial bone repair.
Our research team, including Dr Marie-Luise Wille, Dr Nathan Castro and PhD student Sebastian Eggert, worked closely with Dr Michael Wagels, the Princess Alexandra plastic surgeon who performed the surgery.
We firstly developed a computer model and 3D printed a series of physical models of the large bone defect from CT scans of the patient’s tibia bone and then designed a patient-specific implant in the form of a highly porous scaffold which will guide the regeneration of the new bone.
We used a 3D printer from the Queensland-based company 3D Industries to print the models and then the final scaffold design was sent to Osteopore International, an industry partner in the ARC ITTC which has more than 10-year clinical track record for their FDA-approved and CE-marked biodegradable scaffolds.
For the Media coverage of ABC News and Metro South Health (Queensland Government) please visit the links.
