Custom-Made Prosthetics: Advances in 3D Printing Are Also Benefiting Animals

Three-dimensional (3D) printing represents a major technological advance that impacts many sectors, including the medical field—for both humans and animals. Bioprinting of biological tissues, which began to develop more than 20 years ago, continues to push the boundaries of regenerative medicine, bone surgery, and implantology. Today, this innovative technique enables the creation of medical devices for humans (physiological skin models, grafts, implants, prostheses, etc.), as well as, more recently, for animals. It offers practitioners personalized, custom-printed solutions.   Bioprinting is an offshoot of 3D printing that has seen the strongest growth and revolutionary innovations in recent years (models of molecules, cells, and human organs). The bioprinting market, estimated at $100 billion in 2015, is projected to grow by 36% between 2017 and 2022, outpacing many other fields related to 3D printing. While Organovo, the first specialized laboratory, remains the industry leader, other key players have gradually emerged in the United States and Canada, as well as in Europe (France, with Poietis and 3d.Fab), Russia, Asia, and elsewhere.   http://video.dailymail.co.uk/video/mol/2017/04/24/8098055453331471679/640x360_MP4_8098055453331471679.mp4   Today, several applications of 3D printing benefit animals, whether domestic or wild animals. Around the world, dogs, cats, birds, rodents, and even turtles and penguins have been fitted with prosthetics tailored to their anatomy and disabilities by teams of veterinarians and engineers.   http://video.dailymail.co.uk/video/mol/2016/06/01/4235475208103900220/640x360_4235475208103900220.mp4   As a result, dogs and a cat born with atrophied, amputated, or paralyzed limbs have regained mobility thanks to prosthetics created specifically for them and 3D-printed, allowing them to move normally. In New Zealand, a team of researchers created a prosthesis for a penguin that had lost a flipper. A toucan in Costa Rica regained the use of its beak thanks to a 3D-printed model. In the United States, a duck with two deformed legs was able to walk again with the help of custom-made prosthetics. Injured sea turtles have been fitted with prosthetics—one in Turkey, where scientists were able to reproduce a digital model of the beak and design a 3D-printed titanium prosthesis, the other in Ireland, where they manufactured a new 3D-printed flipper using polymer and titanium. https://youtu.be/uRmoowIN8aY   In Brazil, a land tortoise, a victim of a forest fire, was given a shell that looked more real than the original, created from about forty photos and printed in four pieces, each of which took about fifty hours to print. The “next-generation” team of veterinarians who treated the tortoise has already used 3D printing to reconstruct the beaks of a toucan, a parrot, and a WOAH. They are also responsible for the first titanium beak transplant for a Brazilian macaw. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n48y_yxG7Fg&feature=youtu.be But 3D printing in veterinary medicine isn’t limited to exotic animals. In the United Kingdom, for example, Dr. Noël Fitzpatrick is pushing the boundaries of veterinary surgery with the help of 3D technology, creating bionic prosthetics to restore mobility to his clients’ dogs and cats. Horses aren’t left out either: the Australian company CSIRO has begun manufacturing 3D-printed titanium horseshoes, which are lighter and designed to help alleviate certain chronic musculoskeletal conditions. In a less medical and more frivolous realm, animal owners can draw inspiration from the creations offered on the Cults platform to treat themselves to personalized 3D objects, some more useful than others: these range from automated kibble dispensers to travel bowls, from duck-bill-shaped muzzles to educational dog toys, from collar tags to litter scoops, as well as birdhouses, bird feeders, and rodent hutches. The downloadable 3D files can be printed on personal FDM (fused deposition modeling) 3D printers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv9tXp_mRK4