3-D Printers Making Artificial Cartilage

Fox News Radio—November 28, 2012

Technology and a little outside help from mechanical engineers are moving doctors closer to a breakthrough that could help millions of Americans suffering from joint pain.

New hope for developing artificial cartilage. Most current treatments are either all-natural and too soft to last, or synthetic and inherently risky since they don’t have actual cells.  Now…

(Dr. Suzanne Maher) “They’re trying to combine biology with mechanics.”

Creating implants on the strength of synthetics and injected with cartilage cells to help regrow damaged areas – all done with 3-D printers. Dr. Suzanne Maher at New York’s Hospital for Special Surgery says the approach is already being used with bone.

(Dr. Maher) “Ideally, you’d like to be able to take that MRI scan, look at the geometry of the defect, and then you could actually manufacture something that fits into that defect perfectly.”

The implants have been successful in mice.

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