A team of engineers and pediatric orthopedic surgeons are using 3D printing to help train surgeons and shorten surgeries for the most common hip disorder found in children ages 9 to 16. In a recent study, researchers showed that allowing surgeons to prep on a 3D-printed model of the patient’s hip joint cut by about 25 percent the amount of time needed for surgery when compared to a control group.
The team, which includes bioengineers from the University of California San Diego and physicians from Rady Children’s Hospital, detailed their findings in a recent issue of the Journal of Children’s Orthopaedics.
