3D-Printed Patient-Specific Surgical Plates Versus Conventional Surgical Plates in Jaw Reconstruction

"We adopt an in-house approach for designing by surgeons. All patient-specific devices are designed in 3-matic 13.0 (Materialise). Both cutting and transferring guides are then additively manufactured by Fused Deposition Manufacturing (FDM) using ULTEM 1010, or by Stereolithography using MED610 resin (Stratasys Ltd, Eden Prairie, MN, USA). Both ULTEM 1010 and MED610 are FDA cleared biocompatible materials applicable to high-temperature autoclaving.~Patient-specific surgical plates are designed by delineating a plate path on bone surface, then followed by the placement of screw holes. Surgical plates are generated by the built-in command in 3-matic. After that, surgical plates are fabricated by SLM using grade 2 titanium powder."

Bone segments will be stabilized using commercial titanium surgical plates (DePuy Synthes, United States), which are bent manually before fastening the screws.\[