3D Printing Custom Bioactive and Absorbable Surgical Screws, Pins, and Bone Plates for Localized Drug Delivery
by
Karthik Tappa 1,*
, Udayabhanu Jammalamadaka 1, Jeffery A. Weisman 2, David H. Ballard 1, Dallas D. Wolford 3, Cecilia Pascual-Garrido 4, Larry M. Wolford 5, Pamela K. Woodard 1 and David K. Mills 6
Karthik Tappa 1,*, Udayabhanu Jammalamadaka 1, Jeffery A. Weisman 2, David H. Ballard 1, Dallas D. Wolford 3, Cecilia Pascual-Garrido 4, Larry M. Wolford 5, Pamela K. Woodard 1 and David K. Mills 6
1
Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA
2
University of Illinois at Chicago Occupational Medicine, Chicago, IL 60612, USA
3
Department of Surgery, UT Southwestern Medical Center; University of Texas Southwestern, Dallas, TX 75390, USA
4
Adult Reconstruction-Adolescent and Young Adult Hip Service, Washington University Orthopedics, St Louis, MO 63110, USA
5
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Texas A&M University College of Dentistry and Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, TX 75246, USA
6
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Louisiana Tech University, 305 Wisteria Street, Ruston, LA 71272, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
J. Funct. Biomater. 2019, 10(2), 17; https://doi.org/10.3390/jfb10020017
Received: 13 March 2019 / Revised: 26 March 2019 / Accepted: 28 March 2019 / Published: 1 April 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Functional Biomaterials in Drug Delivery Applications)
Additive manufacturing has great potential for personalized medicine in osseous fixation surgery, including maxillofacial and orthopedic applications. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate 3D printing methods for the fabrication of patient-specific fixation implants that allow for localized drug delivery. 3D printing was used to fabricate gentamicin (GS) and methotrexate (MTX)-loaded fixation devices, including screws, pins, and bone plates. Scaffolds with different infill ratios of polylactic acid (PLA), both without drugs and impregnated with GS and MTX, were printed into cylindrical and rectangular-shaped constructs for compressive and flexural strength mechanical testing, respectively. Bland PLA constructs showed significantly higher flexural strength when printed in a Y axis at 100% infill compared to other axes and infill ratios; however, there was no significant difference in flexural strength between other axes and infill ratios. GS and MTX-impregnated constructs had significantly lower flexural and compressive strength as compared to the bland PLA constructs. GS-impregnated implants demonstrated bacterial inhibition in plate cultures. Similarly, MTX-impregnated implants demonstrated a cytotoxic effect in osteosarcoma assays. This proof of concept work shows the potential of developing 3D printed screws and plating materials with the requisite mechanical properties and orientations. Drug-impregnated implants were technically successful and had an anti-bacterial and chemotherapeutic effect, but drug addition significantly decreased the flexural and compressive strengths of the custom implants.
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Keywords:
additive manufacturing; orthopedic fixation devices; antibiotics; chemotherapeutics; drug delivery implants; biodegradable; polylactic acid (PLA); 3D printing
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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Tappa, K.; Jammalamadaka, U.; Weisman, J.A.; Ballard, D.H.; Wolford, D.D.; Pascual-Garrido, C.; Wolford, L.M.; Woodard, P.K.; Mills, D.K. 3D Printing Custom Bioactive and Absorbable Surgical Screws, Pins, and Bone Plates for Localized Drug Delivery. J. Funct. Biomater. 2019, 10, 17.
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