Abstract
Purpose
In the present report it is described the design, the manufacturing and the successful surgical implant of one of the first 3D custom titanium vertebra realized with Additive Manufacturing technique and its use for the spinal reconstruction after en-bloc resection for primary osteogenic sarcoma.
Methods
Clinical case presentation and the design of the 3D custom titanium vertebra was reported. It was also described the complex procedures adopted to evaluate the retrieved device from the histological point of view, as a tumor relapse hit the patient, one year after the reconstruction procedure.
Results
The histological evaluation confirmed that the resection technique exerts an important role in promoting bone formation: vertebral body osteotomies favored the reconstruction procedure and maximized the contact area between host bone/vertebral prosthesis thus favoring the bone tissue penetration and device colonization.
Conclusion
The sharing of these results is very important as they represent the starting point for improving the knowledge starting from the evidence obtained in a challenging clinical condition and with post-operative treatments that could be never reproduced in preclinical model.
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Acknowledgements
The Authors acknowledge the invaluable contribution of Cristiana Griffoni and Carlo Piovani for patient storage and data collection. This study contributed to the development of the Project by National Funding Organisations (Ministero della Salute – IMH) under the frame of EuroNanoMed III Project “Next generation antibacterial nanostructured osseointegrated customized vertebral replacement – NANOVERTEBRA” Joint Transnational call for proposals (JTC 2018).
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Donato Monopoli-Forleo is employed as a researcher for Canary Islands Institute of Technology.
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Girolami, M., Sartori, M., Monopoli-Forleo, D. et al. Histological examination of a retrieved custom-made 3D-printed titanium vertebra. Eur Spine J 30, 2775–2781 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00586-021-06926-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00586-021-06926-w