Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM) of Biodevices - Advanced Design and Manufacturing Technologies for Biomedical Devices - page 164

9.2 Computer-Aided Manufacturing in Bioengineering

In Biomedical Engineering, personalization is usually pursued for providing a
remarkable solution for an especially unconventional and complex pathology, for
promoting diagnostic or therapeutic capabilities of a device by a better adaptation to
patient

s morphology, and for supplying enhanced technical helps designed by a
more detailed application of ergonomic principles. In such a fi eld, personalization is
in most cases a relevant need, not just a luxury, and its social impact justifi es carry-
ing out continued research for its promotion.
The combination of medical imaging-based computer-aided design approaches,
as explained in Chap. 5 , with the progressive advances in computer-aided manufac-
turing is promoting prosthesis personalization. Next section provides an example of
hip prosthesis personalization, although the most common sector in which personal-
ized implants are widely being obtained by computer-aided manufacturing is
dentistry.
In such fi eld, implants are not so invasive or linked to vital organs and have also
a relevant aesthetic component, which is perhaps also connected with the desire of
dentists of promoting marketing through innovative processes. Placing dental
implants into market is quite easier than facing the production of total hip or knee
replacements, artifi cial heart valves, and pacemakers, among others, whose produc-
tion is controlled by multinationals, sometimes also linked to marking standardiza-
tion directions, usually promoting the appearance of oligopolies.
The collaboration between dental clinics and prosthetics laboratories is very
common and most laboratories nowadays include digital scanners for teeth recon-
struction, computer-aided design resources for design operations, and CNC-driven
compact milling machines for directly manufacturing personalized implants in
zirconia and other biomimetic materials with enhanced aesthetic features. Besides,
the computer-aided manufacturing of personalized splints, for helping with dental
surgical procedures, is also widely used.
Companies such as Materialise HQ offer their CAD-CAM services for providing
customers with such personalized splints for surgical aid, sold under the name
“Surgi Guide” ( http://biomedical.materialise.com ), and a similar business model is
expanding.
In any case, relevant research efforts have been devoted in the last decades to
extending these procedures to all kinds of prostheses, such as knee replacements
(Riechmann et al. 1991 ), hip prostheses (Osuna 2008 ; Ojeda 2009 ), and annulo-
plasty rings (Díaz Lantada et al. 2010 ) among other biodevices.
Such research is worth of attention, even if the fi nal implantation is not achieved
(as related regulatory affairs usually require a devoted team of jurists for handling
all the procedures, what can only be afforded by the bigger enterprises). Similar
processes and resources can be of help for alternative developments and for promot-
ing novel personalized biodevices.

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