Scientists develop 3D-printing ‘glue gun’ to repair bone fractures

Researchers created a special glue gun that can 3D print a bone-like substance for fracture repair during surgery and have tested it in early experiments.

The prime motive of this innovation is to shorten surgical times particularly for complex or irregularly shaped fractures.

Scientists have developed an innovative, handheld device resembling a standard glue gun to 3D print a bone-like material directly onto fractures during surgery, paving the way for its use in operating rooms.

This technology, so far successfully tested in rabbits, is particularly useful for treating irregularly shaped fractures to decrease the need for time-consuming pre-surgical preparation.

Study co-author Jung Seung Lee, a biomedical engineer at Sungkyunkwan University in South Korea told Live Science, “This makes the approach quite unique and sets it apart from conventional methods.”

Commonly, large fractures or other defects in bones require bone grafting combined with metal fasteners to support the broken bone as it heals.

However, because these off-the-shelf metal implants are not custom fit to the patient's fracture shape, they can result in poor alignment and other problems.

While previous studies have demonstrated the feasibility of using 3D printing to create patients specific bone grafts, these methods have been constrained by practical challenges that prevent them from being used on the fly during surgery.

In a study published in the journal Device, researchers led by Jung Seung have developed a modified method of 3D printing a bone substitute directly onto a fracture using a glue gun.

This new method was successfully tested on rabbits with leg fractures and is crucial to improve the repair of complex bone rupture.