74 / 2019-08-29 15:44:13

Bionic design and evaluation of PEEK costal cartilage prosthesis fabricated by 3D printing

Bionic design,Finite Element Analysis (FEA),Poly ether-ether ketone(PEEK),costal cartilage prosthesis,3D printing

全体主题 > Production and delivery of biological products

The costal cartilage is part of chest wall, connecting sternum and rib. Chest wall reconstructions are mainly needed after surgical treatment of oncologic disease or trauma. The currently existed sternum and rib prosthesis using titanium or poly ether-ether ketone(PEEK) normally lack the consideration of costal cartilage, which led to unsatisfied functional rehabilitation of breath. This study proposes a new bionic method for a costal cartilage prosthesis using the wavy elastic structure, through which the effective properties can be adjusted. The prosthesis was fabricated by fused deposition modelling (FDM) manufacturing technology, using poly ether-ether ketone(PEEK). Finite element analysis was carried out for optimization of the designed costal cartilage using similar loading conditions of mechanical testing. Mechanical test was carried out on the 3D printed PEEK costal cartilage for indicating the results of finite element analysis. The effect module of prosthesis ranged from 5MPa to 16MPa, which is close to that of a natural costal cartilage. The results indicate that the wavy elastic structure are effective for the design of a costal cartilage prosthesis in PEEK. Such methodology offers considerable design freedom in terms of shape and required strength. Therefore, the PEEK costal cartilage prosthesis has the potential as replacement of the nature costal cartilage for better breathing function of the patient from chest wall reconstruction.