A CSIRO team helped make medical history last month after it teamed up with UK doctors and a Melbourne medical implant company to implant a 3D printed sternum.
The titanium and polymer sternum was created by Anatomics and printed at CISRO's Melbourne facility Lab 22 before it was inserted into British patient 61-year-old Daniel Evans.
It was the first time a titanium and synthetic polymer sternum has been used to replace bone, cartilage and tissue in a patient.
Since the surgery, Mr Evans has made a successful recovery. He needed the artificial sternum after his had been removed due to a rare infection.
CSIRO manufacturing director Keith McLean said the Melbourne lab had been quietly developing what he believes is "one of the world's most advanced capabilities in reconstructive prosthetics".
"I'm proud of our cutting-edge work with Anatomics that has enabled patients around the world to regain the ability to walk, to sit up and lead normal lives," Dr McLean said.
The CSIRO has previously created a pure titanium sternum and rib implant for a Spanish cancer patient and a titanium heel bone that saved an Australian cancer patient's leg from amputation.
- 3D printing is used to turn digital three-dimensional models into solid objects by building them up in layers.
