Systematic review of the utility and limits of 3D printing in spine surgery

Abstract

Objective

The main objective of this study has been to demonstrate why additive printing allows to make complex surgical pathological processes that affect the spine more visible and understandable, increasing precision, safety and reliability of the surgical procedure.

Methods

A systematic review of the articles published in the last 10 years on 3D printing-assisted spinal surgery was carried out, in accordance with PRISMA 2020 declaration. Keywords “3D printing” and “spine surgery” were searched in Pubmed, Embase, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Google Scholar and Opengrey databases, which was completed with a manual search through the list of bibliographic references of the articles that were selected following the defined inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Results

From the analysis of the 38 selected studies, it results that 3D printing is useful in surgical planning, medical teaching, doctor–patient relationship, design of navigation templates and spinal implants, and research, optimizing the surgical process by focusing on the patient, offering magnificent support during the surgical procedure.

Conclusions

The use of three-dimensional printing biomodels allows: making complex surgical pathological processes that affect the spine more visible and understandable; increase the accuracy, precision and safety of the surgical procedure, and open up the possibility of implementing personalized treatments, mainly in tumor surgery.