Three-Dimensional Printed Knee Implants: Insights into Surgeons’ Points of View (original) (raw)

Three-dimensional printing is a technology that has been developed and applied in several medical specialties, especially orthopedic surgery. Knee arthroplasty is the most commonly performed procedure. To fit the morphology of each knee, surgeons can choose between different standardized off-the-shelf implant sizes or opt for customized 3D-printed implants. However, routine adoption of the latter has been slow and faces several barriers. Existing studies focus on technical improvements or case studies and do not directly address the surgeon’s perspective. Our study invited surgeons to express themselves freely and answer the question “What do you think about the manufacture of a prosthesis by 3D printing?”. The questionnaire was completed by 90 surgeons. On average, they had more than 10 years of experience (52, 57.8% ± 10.2%), worked in public hospitals (54, 60% ± 10.1%), and performed between 0 and 100 prostheses per year (60, 66.7% ± 9.7%). They also reported not using planning s...