A handheld device can apply synthetic bone grafts directly at the site of a defect or injury without the need for prior imaging or fabrication.
Researchers demonstrated the technology by modifying a hot glue gun to 3-D print the material directly onto bone fractures in rabbits. Instead of using a regular glue stick, they employed a specially made “bioink,” the team reports September 5 in Device.
The idea was to design a printing system that could be easily equipped and used in clinical settings, says biomedical engineer Jung Seung Lee of Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, South Korea.
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