3D Printed Personalized Canine Prostheses

Osteosarcoma is the most common type of bone cancer in dogs. The objective of this project is to reduce limb-sparing surgery time in dogs afflicted by osteosarcoma of the distal radius via the use of personalized endoprostheses and cutting guides. Specialized software is used to reconstruct bone models from the patient’s CT scan. The prosthesis and the cutting guide are designed using the bone models as scaffolding and applying the veterinary surgeon’s guidelines. The prosthesis is manufactured using a titanium alloy on a powder-bed laser fusion system, while the cutting guide is printed in plastic using fused deposition modelling. Several post-treatment steps are performed prior to shipping the prosthesis-cutting guide kit for surgery. Five dogs were successfully operated during the ongoing clinical trial. This study shows that personalized prostheses and cutting guides can substantially reduce surgery time and might reduce the risk of postoperative infections and implant failures.