As of 2025, over 5.6 million persons in the United States are living with a physical disability. Of those, around 3.4 million people live with amputations. On average, over 500,000 Americans are born with a limb amputation or lose a limb every year. The number of amputations is over ten times higher (about 465,000 annually) than the number of children born with limb deformities (about 43,000 annually). As a result, amputation-related hospital expenses run into the billions. Additionally, almost 50% of people who receive a vascular disease-related amputation pass away within five years.
Even though there are several methods of treatment, many of them are extremely expensive and potentially unsafe. However, with the help of advancements in modern 3D printing technology, it’s possible to 3D print certain body parts, such as the femur bone, to cost as little as $7!
Dr. Weinschenk, Assistant Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at UT Southwestern, specializes in bone tumors and soft tissue sarcomas. Collaborating with mechanical engineers from UT Dallas, Dr. Weinschenk and the team used polylactic acid – an inexpensive, biodegradable polyester material commonly used in 3D printing – to construct a wide range of femur models with different physical attributes such as wall thickness and infill density.
Those models were then tested for flexural strength, and the results were compared to the biomechanical response of human femurs, enabling the team to identify the methodology that produced the most accurate replica.
In order to ensure that these printed femurs were comparable to that of actual human femur bones, Kishore Mysore Nagaraja, a Ph.D. candidate at UT Dallas, developed numerous samples of the printed femurs and tested them to ensure they were mechanically equivalent to actual femur bones.
Even though four generations of synthetic femur models have been developed for biomechanical testing and sold commercially since 1987, they have had limitations, including cost and delivery time. Dr. Nagaraja said the 3D printing technique he and his colleagues created solves those problems. This is significant because despite its prevalence, one of the primary issues with 3D printing was the cost. However, these recent developments have subsidized those issues.
Kuvar Bhatnagar, a technology education engineer who worked on computer-aided designs at SUNY Oswego, said that he is excited about these recent advancements that can lead to more breakthroughs. Bhatnagar said, “I’m becoming increasingly interested in the new types of filament material being used in 3D printers. As the industry moves closer to naturalized materials, the quality of the products will increase exponentially.”
The femur is the strongest and longest bone in the human body, with the average adult femur measuring about 18 inches in length. The UT Dallas researchers made models of the middle portion of the femur, just under 8 inches in size and almost an inch in diameter. Once again, the specimens are produced at an estimated cost of $7.
Maharin Mollah, a Bachelor of Engineering student at New York University, has dedicated her work to supporting individuals with autism by developing prosthetic tools through 3D printing. She recognizes the transformative potential of this research. Mollah said, “There are many people around the world who, unfortunately, lack the financial resources to support themselves. This research could be a game-changer, especially for those who can’t afford expensive prosthetics.” Through her own experiences, Maharin has come to understand the widespread challenge faced by individuals with disabilities who also struggle with the high costs of prosthetics.
FLEXIBILITY
Along these innovations in prosthetics, there’s been significant progress in the field of bioprinting, where 3D printed structures are used to create many complex tissue models. At the University of Dresden, researchers have been developing 3D printed hydrogel scaffolds laden with micro-algae and human cells.
These microalgae are useful as they can increase chlorophyll content and provide oxygen to human cells when exposed to light, which would effectively create a symbiotic relationship that could help maintain healthy tissue in prosthetic applications. As a result, the integration of microalgae within the scaffolds would help deliver oxygen to the human cells embedded in the hydrogel more efficiently.
This approach has massive potential because it can improve the bioactivity of prosthetic implants drastically which would make them not just mechanical devices, but functional, living tissues that could promote healing and reduce the risk of complications like rejection or infection.
In order to improve the ability to guide and nurture the growth of cells in these complex 3D structures, microfluidics have emerged as a powerful tool. Researchers at Drexel University have developed advanced microfluidic systems embedded in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), which allow for improved control over cell environments, ensuring precise delivery of nutrients, gases, and waste removal in bio printed tissues.
This innovation could be used to create more intricate vascular networks and improve the integration of prosthetic bones with the body’s natural tissues, further enhancing the functionality of 3D printed prosthetics.
Creating heterogeneous cell co-cultures with microfluidic technology can also be improved upon in the future for creating more personalized prosthetics, where the exact needs of the patient’s body could be addressed. Even individuals whose conditions are considered very rare could still get treatment– and for a inexpensive price.
For example, in the future, microalgae-human cell cultures embedded in 3D printed scaffolds could be used to regenerate tissues in amputees or in those with severe limb differences, leaving more potential for future research projects.
FUTURE
Even with recent breakthroughs, 3D printing models can often be regarded as inaccurate or inflexible because there are certain organs in the body such as the brain which contain soft tissues, making them much more complicated to replicate.
A study conducted by Ploch, a research engineer from Stanford University, and his fellow researchers demonstrated a very fast and cost effective method using 3D printing, molding, and casting, to create realistic models of human brains which are not only accurate but formable as well, thus showing flexibility. They used a surrogate gelatin-type material that closely mimics the mechanical properties of the human brain which can be used for further research.
This technique can be used to make personalized brain models, which can be used for surgical planning or for medical training. It would be very helpful for medical students or practicians to use and train as an alternative to the cadaveric type. This bypasses the ethical issues as well as the cost of the processes.
3D printing techniques may offer a novel and effective substitute by creating the same accurate complex anatomical organs from high resolution CT imaging for many cases, including those in which using a traditional method such as cadaver is not an option.
Furthermore, researchers and medical experts would have much more variability because 3D printing gives one the opportunity to print an anatomical object in various sizes to aid in training.
3D printing is already used in the production of human organ and tissue structures for research. As stated earlier, it can be combined in the future with biocompatible microfluidics to create highly complex structures to mimic the function of native human organs.
The next step is printing organs that can be transplanted into human donors, or even printing organs in the body in-situ in the operating room. While this technology is less mature than others described in this article, it has the potential to revolutionize medicine, eventually making organ transplants and current synthetic artificial organs obsolete.
Even though there are several methods of treatment, many of them are extremely expensive and potentially unsafe. However, with the help of advancements in modern 3D printing technology, it’s possible to 3D print certain body parts, such as the femur bone, to cost as little as $7!