Bio-Medical applications of Additive Manufacturing: A Review
Ankita Jaisingh Sheoran, Harish Kumar, Pawan Kumar Arora, Girija Moona
Abstract
Additive Manufacturing (AM) finds multiple applications in a variety of fields such as aviation, defense, manufacturing, automotive sector, industrial, education and research, but most importantly in Bio-Medical, healthcare and pharmaceutical industries because of its ability to fabricate complex customized parts with extensive ease, flexibility and with various biomaterials. This review presents the Bio-medical applications of AM so far. This review concisely highlights the healthcare sectors that are revolutionized by AM, such as bio-printing, Tissue Engineering, Dentistry, printing patient-specific customized implants, Medical devices/Surgical tools, orthopaedics and prosthesis, Drug delivery and also virtual surgical planning. Also, the different bio-inks and Biomaterials utilized for printing cell-seeded tissues, 3DP implants, replacement organ printing and scaffolds, are presented. Thus AM ensures safety, innovation and ease in healthcare sector. Despite these, AM still has tremendous promise and scope for further improvement in pharmaceutical, drug delivery and bio-medicinal sectors.