Morphological analysis, articular models and 3d printing: a combined approach for the development of personalized prostheses able to reproduce the joint functionality of a patient

The main objective of articular prostheses is to recover the joint mobility and stability after substitution of the patient articular surfaces. Thus, prosthetic surfaces must fulfil different tasks: replicating the natural joint behaviour, reproducing the function of articular structures removed during the implant, respecting the residual structures. In general, prosthetic components have default shape and position that often do not allow fulfilment of these tasks. The scope of this study is to propose an approach for the prosthesis design based on the combination of medical images, personalized articular models and 3D printing, to obtain morphological and kinematical information of a patient for the development of personalized prostheses.