A collaboration between Sheffield healthcare company, JRI Orthopaedics and 3D printing services provider, Mobelife is set to benefit patients across the country.
Under the collaboration, JRI Orthopaedics will supply patient specific, 3D printed hip and shoulder implants for cases involving highly challenging bone and joint reconstruction surgery.
The multi-award winning company has teamed up with Mobelife – a Materialise company – to offer its aMace Acetabular Revision System and Glenius Shoulder Glenoid Revision Component to orthopaedic surgeons throughout the UK.
These systems are usually used where failure of an implant used in an earlier joint replacement procedure has resulted in significant bone loss which cannot be reconstructed with a standard, off-the-shelf implant.
A CT scan of the patient’s pelvis or shoulder is used by Belgium-based Mobelife to create a virtual model of their anatomy and a computer generated plan for a personalised implant, which is checked with the surgeon before being 3D printed.
Hip Product Manager at JRI Orthopaedics, Michael Colling-Tuck explained: “The application of 3D printing technology is one of the most exciting developments in world orthopaedics.
“We have expanded from off-the-shelf implants to customised solutions manufactured for a specific patient’s bone anatomy. This enables us to help patients with bone defects in the hip and shoulder which might, in the past, have been impossible to reconstruct.
Colling-Tuck continued: “JRI was founded on innovation. We were the first company in world orthopedics to produce a hip implant with a Hydroxyapatite coating enabling a biological bond between the patient’s bone and the implant, providing for a long-term secure fixation.
“We are always striving to develop and embrace new technology and approaches which will improve outcomes for patients requiring joint replacement surgery, to give them a better quality of life for longer.”
Employing 115 people at its advanced manufacturing facility in Chapeltown, JRI Orthopaedics has world-class expertise in the design, development and manufacture of orthopaedic implants and surgical instruments.