Combining Virtual Surgical Planning and Patient-Specific 3D-Printing as a Solution to Complex Spinal Revision Surgery

Abstract

With the advent of three-dimensional printing, rapid growth in the field and application in spinal and orthopedic surgery has been seen. This technology is now being applied in creating patient-specific implants, as it offers benefits over the generic alternative, with growing literature supporting this. This report details a unique application of virtual surgical planning and manufacture of a personalized implant in a case of cervical disc replacement failure with severe osteolysis and resultant hypermobility. Where this degree of degenerative bone loss would often necessitate a vertebrectomy to be performed, this case highlights the considerable customizability of 3D-printed patient-specific implants to contour to the bony defects, allowing for a smaller and safer operation, with the achievement of stability as early as 3 months after the procedure, by the presence of osseointegration. With increasing developments in virtual planning technology and 3D printing ability, the future of complex spinal revision surgery may adopt these technologies as it affords the patient a faster, safer, and less invasive and destructive procedure.