Argentinian patient received 3D printed skull implant made of titanium

[Eddie]

It looks as though yet another surgery has been performed, which uses 3D printing. A patient in Argentina has received a titanium 3D printed implant, which was printed on one of Arcam's printers. It is a special type of titanium which is porous to mimic human bone. It appears as though the surgery was a success. I expect we will begin to see more and more surgeries of this kind in the near future, as surgeons and hospitals realize the great benefits of the technology. Read more about this at http://3dprint.com/6342/titanium-3d-printed-skull/

What do you think? Will we begin to see more of this soon?

[zthigpen]

I guess there are a few areas of hesitation:
-Has this been tested in a lab on mice or rats?
-Is the titanium as strong as human bone?
-What about heavy metal poisoning?
This is an unbelievable step and I am so excited to see the progression of 3D printing in the medical field, but it seems as though 3D implants and things of that nature are going into practice without as much regulation and testing as the medical field generally takes. Why is that?

[Roxy]

This is an unbelievable step and I am so excited to see the progression of 3D printing in the medical field, but it seems as though 3D implants and things of that nature are going into practice without as much regulation and testing as the medical field generally takes. Why is that?

My guess is because 3D-Printing allows an individual (as opposed to a monster huge company) to create specialty items.

[Feign]

Titanium implants have been used in human patients for over a decade without sign of major problems. There's no chemical difference between a SLS-made titanium implant and a machined one. The big difference between the manufacturing processes is about four digits off the price.

[Aliya]

More examples of surgeries I see, more I get that usually Ti implants are used in orthopedics rather than maxillofacial cases. Though here they used it for skull.

There's good polymer PEEK and latest one PEKK that more common for skull replacement.
I didn't find so far big differences between metal and polymers in mechanical properties. There's some research about acceptance by cells in time (PEKK has better performance than Ti) but in general they both look similar. So from my perspective polymers are better because of weight issue and person postsurgeory life (Ti will show up in metall detector arcs).
What're advantages of both materials or significant differences? And how surgeons decide what material to go for?