Versatile smart hip implant technology using 3D metal printing

摘要

Modern joint replacements provide an effective treatment for patients suffering from debilitating joint conditions; over 300,000 total hip replacement surgeries are performed each year in North America. Nonetheless, about 10% of all hip implants need to be replaced within 10 years of patients receiving a total hip replacement, typically due to component loosening or infection. The capabilities of state-of-the-art 3D metal printing systems allow research groups and medical device manufacturers to explore entirely new designs for more intelligent and effective orthopedic implants, which may offer improved performance and more effective monitoring. This paper presents the development of a platform for a next generation “smart” implant: an instrumented implant with electronic sensors and wireless telemetry. This implant utilizes an ultra-low power microcontroller and wireless radio frequency transceiver onboard. Additive manufacturing in medical grade alloy has been used to create a modified version of a commercial hip implant with allowance for an electronics cassette, including an instrumentation bay with a 2.4 cm3 volume. This modular approach provides the capability of incorporating a range of sensors in the future (e.g., sensors measuring acceleration, stress, strain, and temperature) during the design, optimization, and testing of next-generation implants.