The experience of a clinical 3Dprinting laboratory: Current and future perspectives

The widespread of 3D printing or additive manufacturing technologies within the medical field, especially the orthopaedical one, has recently led to a growing interest among hospitals in the acquisition of such technologies to support the clinical activity. The work reports the current overview of the clinical 3Dprinting laboratories activated worldwide and discusses the possibilities offered by the presence of such laboratories inside a hospital through the experience of 3D4Med, one of the first hospital-based laboratory activated. The work describes the concept and logistic of the clinical 3Dprinting laboratory and provides examples of its role within the hospital activity, with a special focus on the orthopaedical field. The presence of a Clinical 3D Printing Laboratory can positively impact on a number of aspects of the daily clinical activity, such as the preoperatory planning, the communication with the surgical team and/or the patient and the teaching activities. The experience of 3D4Med and the worldwide overview of clinical 3Dprinting laboratories foresee a positive trend in the spread of such implementation, supported by the evidence of the multiple benefits of the technology brought by the literature on the topic.