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A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Additive Manufacturing Technologies".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 August 2024) | Viewed by 12940

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Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Zhonghua Sun

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Guest Editor

Discipline of Medical Radiation Science, Curtin University, Perth, WA 6845, Australia
Interests: 3D visualization; virtual reality; augmented reality; 3D printing; diagnostic radiology; cardiovascular disease; artificial intelligence
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Recent developments in 3D technologies have transformed our perception of how 3D visualizations contribute to the medical domain. Virtual reality (VR), mixed reality (MR) and extended reality (XR) are increasingly used in medical education and clinical practice by providing an immersive environment with applications ranging from medical education and training to surgical guidance and preoperative planning of surgical procedures. Further, 3D printing is also a rapidly developed technology showing great potential in medical education and clinical practice. Three-dimensional printed personalized models accurately replicate anatomy and pathology, and thus enhance learning and understanding of complex anatomy and disease conditions, assist surgical planning and simulation, and improve doctor–patient/with colleagues communication.

This Special Issue will highlight the current advances in VR/AR/XR and 3D printing technologies in medical applications. Technological advancements including 3D printing materials (including bioprinting) and printing technologies, 3D printing integrated with VR/AR/XR are also included in the Special Issue contents.

Prof. Dr. Zhonghua Sun
Guest Editor

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Keywords

virtual reality
mixed reality
extended reality
3D printing
medicicine
application

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

Jump to: Review, Other

18 pages, 23563 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Considerations on the Design, Printability and Usability of Customized 3D-Printed Upper Limb Orthoses

by Diana Popescu, Dan Lăptoiu and Nicoleta Luminița Căruțașu

Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(14), 6157; https://doi.org/10.3390/app14146157 - 15 Jul 2024

Viewed by 812

Abstract

This paper investigated the feasibility of using 3D printing processes, specifically material extrusion (MEX) and vat photopolymerization (DLP—Digital Light Processing), to produce customized wrist–hand orthoses. Design, printability, and usability aspects were addressed. It was found that minimizing printing time for orthoses with intricate shapes, ventilation pockets, and minimal thickness is difficult. The influence of build orientation and process parameters, such as infill density, pattern, layer thickness, and wall thickness, on printing time for ten parameter configurations of orthoses in both ready-to-use and flat thermoformed shapes was examined. The findings revealed that the optimized orientations suggested by Meshmixer and Cura (Auto-orient option) did not reliably yield reduced printing times for each analyzed orthoses. The shortest printing time was achieved with a horizontal orientation (for orthoses manufactured in their ready-to-use form, starting from 3D scanning upper limb data) at the expense of surface quality in contact with the hand. For tall and thin orthoses, 100% infill density is recommended to ensure mechanical stability and layer fill, with caution required when reducing the support volume. Flat and thermoformed orthoses had the shortest printing times and could be produced with lower infill densities without defects. For the same design, the shortest printing time for an orthosis 3D-printed in its ready-to-use form was 8 h and 24 min at 60% infill, while the same orthosis produced as flat took 4 h and 37 min for the MEX process and half of this time for DLP. Usability criteria, including perceived immobilization strength, aesthetics, comfort, and weight, were evaluated for seven orthoses. Two healthy users, with previous experience with traditional plaster splints, tested the orthoses and expressed satisfaction with the 3D-printed designs. While the Voronoi design of DLP orthoses was visually more appealing, it was perceived as less stiff compared to those produced by MEX. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Extended Reality and 3D Printing in Medical Applications)

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19 pages, 12653 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Numerical Modeling and Nonlinear Finite Element Analysis of Conventional and 3D-Printed Spinal Braces

by Iason Rossetos, Charis J. Gantes, George Kazakis, Stefanos Voulgaris, Dimitrios Galanis, Fani Pliarchopoulou, Konstantinos Soultanis and Nikos D. Lagaros

Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(5), 1735; https://doi.org/10.3390/app14051735 - 21 Feb 2024

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1822

Abstract

This study aims to describe the numerical modeling and nonlinear finite element analysis of typical spinal braces as a first step towards optimizing their topology for 3D printing. Numerical simulation was carried out in Abaqus CAE software Version 2021, utilizing a CAD (Meshmixer Version 3.5.474) scan of an actual spinal brace. Boundary conditions were defined by means of contact surfaces between the human body and the supporting pads located in the interior of the brace. The process of tightening the straps on the rear face of the brace was simulated via appropriate imposed displacements. The response is described through the deformations and developing stresses of the brace and the contact pressures in the areas of interaction with the human body. Parametric analysis indicated that increasing the cross-sectional thickness or elastic modulus of the brace material results in higher maximum von Mises stresses and lower displacements. The comparison between 3D-printed and conventional braces highlighted the potential of 3D-printing technology to achieve comparable performance with customized designs, leveraging the constitutive properties of 3D-printed material obtained from tension tests. The tension tests demonstrated that the 3D-printed material achieved higher values of modulus of elasticity compared to traditional brace materials. Finally, the topology optimization criteria to be applied for the design of spinal braces in the next step of this ongoing research are briefly described. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Extended Reality and 3D Printing in Medical Applications)

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16 pages, 7531 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessment of the Flexural Fatigue Performance of 3D-Printed Foot Orthoses Made from Different Thermoplastic Polyurethanes

by Mariana Cristiana Iacob, Diana Popescu, Daniel Petcu and Rodica Marinescu

Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(22), 12149; https://doi.org/10.3390/app132212149 - 8 Nov 2023

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2083

Abstract

This research examines the flexural fatigue response of 3D-printed foot orthoses produced from various thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) filaments, including Filaflex 60A, Filaflex 70A, Filaflex 82A, PolyFlex 90A, and varioShore. To subject the insoles to repeated flexion in the metatarsophalangeal area, specialized equipment was developed. A real-world testing scenario was applied to the Filaflex 82A insole, demonstrating that it can sustain over 1,400,000 steps over several months of normal walking (a cadence of approximately 120 steps per minute). Consequently, the experimental conditions were adjusted to double this pace to obtain pertinent results within a shorter testing timeframe. The insoles were subjected to 250 cycles per minute at constant clamping pressures of 176 kPa in the forefoot region. The objective of the evaluation was to determine if 700,000 testing cycles, equivalent to more than two and a half months of daily walking, would induce any damages in the internal structure (infill failure) or external condition (delamination, cracks) of the insoles. Except for compression marks, particularly notable on the foamed material (varioShore TPU) within the clamping zones of the testing device, none of the tested insoles exhibited any signs of external damage after 700,000 cycles. Moreover, the deformations observed in the insoles were non-permanent and nearly entirely disappeared within a few days of rest. The only insole that displayed deterioration of the infill structure was a TPU 82A insole that had been previously worn and then left on a shelf for approximately one year in uncontrolled conditions before being tested at repeated flexion on the apparatus. Additionally, a fifteen-minute walking test was carried out to assess the comfort of each insole, and it was found that the varioShore model, which had a 20% infill density and was 3D-printed at a temperature of 220 °C, stood out as the most comfortable among the tested insoles. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Extended Reality and 3D Printing in Medical Applications)

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23 pages, 17391 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Real-Time 3D Reconstruction Pipeline for Room-Scale, Immersive, Medical Teleconsultation

by Ulrich Eck, Michael Wechner, Frieder Pankratz, Kevin Yu, Marc Lazarovici and Nassir Navab

Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(18), 10199; https://doi.org/10.3390/app131810199 - 11 Sep 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1735

Abstract

Medical teleconsultation was among the initial use cases for early telepresence research projects since medical treatment often requires timely intervention by highly specialized experts. When remote medical experts support interventions, a holistic view of the surgical site can increase situation awareness and improve team communication. A possible solution is the concept of immersive telepresence, where remote users virtually join the operating theater that is transmitted based on a real-time reconstruction of the local site. Enabled by the availability of RGB-D sensors and sufficient computing capability, it becomes possible to capture such a site in real time using multiple stationary sensors. The 3D reconstruction and simplification of textured surface meshes from the point clouds of a dynamic scene in real time is challenging and becomes infeasible for increasing capture volumes. This work presents a tightly integrated, stateless 3D reconstruction pipeline for dynamic, room-scale environments that generates simplified surface meshes from multiple RGB-D sensors in real time. Our algorithm operates directly on the fused, voxelized point cloud instead of populating signed-distance volumes per frame and using a marching cube variant for surface reconstruction. We extend the formulation of the dual contouring algorithm to work for point cloud data stored in an octree and interleave a vertex-clustering-based simplification before extracting the surface geometry. Our 3D reconstruction pipeline can perform a live reconstruction of six incoming depth videos at their native frame rate of 30 frames per second, enabling the reconstruction of smooth movement. Arbitrarily complex scene changes are possible since we do not store persistent information between frames. In terms of mesh quality and hole filling, our method falls between the direct mesh reconstruction and expensive global fitting of implicit functions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Extended Reality and 3D Printing in Medical Applications)

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Review

Jump to: Research, Other

22 pages, 754 KiB

Open AccessReview

Evolving Strategies and Materials for Scaffold Development in Regenerative Dentistry

by Michal Gašparovič, Petra Jungová, Juraj Tomášik, Bela Mriňáková, Dušan Hirjak, Silvia Timková, Ľuboš Danišovič, Marián Janek, Ľuboš Bača, Peter Peciar and Andrej Thurzo

Appl. Sci. 2024, 14(6), 2270; https://doi.org/10.3390/app14062270 - 8 Mar 2024

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3822

Abstract

Regenerative dentistry has experienced remarkable advancement in recent years. The interdisciplinary discoveries in stem cell applications and scaffold design and fabrication, including novel techniques and biomaterials, have demonstrated immense potential in the field of tissue engineering and regenerative therapy. Scaffolds play a pivotal role in regenerative dentistry by facilitating tissue regeneration and restoring damaged or missing dental structures. These biocompatible and biomimetic structures serve as a temporary framework for cells to adhere, proliferate, and differentiate into functional tissues. This review provides a concise overview of the evolution of scaffold strategies in regenerative dentistry, along with a novel analysis (Bard v2.0 based on the Gemini neural network architecture) of the most commonly employed materials used for scaffold fabrication during the last 10 years. Additionally, it delves into bioprinting, stem cell colonization techniques and procedures, and outlines the prospects of regenerating a whole tooth in the future. Moreover, it discusses the optimal conditions for maximizing mesenchymal stem cell utilization and optimizing scaffold design and personalization through precise 3D bioprinting. This review highlights the recent advancements in scaffold development, particularly with the advent of 3D bioprinting technologies, and is based on a comprehensive literature search of the most influential recent publications in this field. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Extended Reality and 3D Printing in Medical Applications)

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Other

Jump to: Research, Review

18 pages, 2941 KiB

Open AccessSystematic Review

Three-Dimensional Printed Liver Models for Surgical Planning and Intraoperative Guidance of Liver Cancer Resection: A Systematic Review

by Timothy Rossi, Ally Williams and Zhonghua Sun

Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(19), 10757; https://doi.org/10.3390/app131910757 - 27 Sep 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1710

Abstract

Successful liver cancer resection requires a comprehensive pre- and intraoperative understanding of the spatial relationships between a patient’s cancer and intrahepatic anatomy. The recent literature has highlighted that patient-specific 3D-printed liver models (3DPLMs) reconstructed from medical imaging data may enhance the comprehension of patients’ liver anatomy and thereby provide a useful preoperative planning and intraoperative guidance tool for liver cancer resection (LCR). The purpose of this systematic review was to critically examine the utility and feasibility of 3DPLMs for LCR surgical planning and intraoperative guidance and explore whether these applications improve patient outcomes. Articles were retrieved from four electronic databases (Scopus, Embase, PubMed, and Curtin University Database) according to predetermined eligibility criteria. In total, 22 eligible articles were identified, including 11 original research articles and 11 case reports. Key concepts were synthesised using an inductive content analysis approach suitable for this heterogeneous body of literature. There is significant descriptive and case-report evidence that 3DPLMs strengthen pre- and intraoperative comprehension of patient liver and liver tumour anatomy and can enhance pre- and intraoperative surgical decision making for LCR. The analysis of these studies presents large variances in the times and costs necessary to produce 3DPLMs, as studies did not provide the full expenses of materials, software, and equipment. Production times were focused on different aspects of the 3D printing process and were not comparable. The review nonetheless demonstrates the potential value of 3DPLMs as preoperative planning and intraoperative guidance tools for LCR. Future studies should detail these economic data points to ensure 3DPLMs’ viability. Further experimental research and randomised controlled trials are also necessary to examine the relationship between 3DPLMs and patient’s intra- and postoperative outcomes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Extended Reality and 3D Printing in Medical Applications)

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