Medical Design Briefs - December 2022 - 31

of a germline gene, the doctors told his parents that the boy
could suffer a type of cancer in his bone system, something that
happened years later when he developed a facial osteosarcoma.
The treatment plan of the oncology team was to carry out
chemotherapy for three months, followed by a fundamental
part of the treatment, guaranteeing local control of the lesion.
For this, it is essential to obtain a complete section of the tumor.
Other local treatments such as radiotherapy in this type of
tumor are not as effective and, in addition, this patient had already
had a radio-induced tumor.
n 3D Printing in 200 Surgeries a Year
The SJD Barcelona Children's Hospital is a pioneer in Spain
and Europe in the research and implementation of new technologies.
It uses 3D printing in more than 200 surgeries a year. The
hospital's the additive manufacturing service has, among others,
BCN3D 3D printers from the Epsilon W27 and W50 series.
The use of 3D printing and planning made its debut at this
center in 2013, after a doctor specifically requested a biomodel
to complement the planning of a complex oncological case.
Since then, the use of this technology has expanded exponentially,
leading to the creation of a multidisciplinary group of
nine different specialties that benefit from this technology.
" We decided to work with BCN3D 3D printers because
they are the machines we usually use for planning anatomical
bone models in maxillofacial surgery and complex surgery
or trauma cases. We use materials that define excellent
chromatic tonalities and accuracy in the printed pieces, and
we obtain the best results with the efficiency of its double
extruder system, printing very realistic pieces, " notes Arnau
Valls, innovation engineer in the 3D printing service at the
hospital.
n Printed Biomodels: The Future of Medicine
Biomodels serve as a visual aid, portraying the anatomical
relationships and the relationship of the tumor with the different
anatomical parts. They function as a presurgical simulation
model, aiding the practice of the cuts to be made by
the surgeon. 3D printing helps to customize surgical interventions
for each patient, accelerating the generation of
support and guidance tools for the surgeon, such as cutting
guides and implant positioning, improving the precision
and safety of the surgery. In addition, the team of the SJD
Barcelona Children's Hospital 3D planning unit has open
lines of research to improve the printed models and achieve,
through research into mechanical properties, colors, and
textures, a better imitation of living tissues.
This article was provided by BCN3D, Barcelona, Spain. For
more information, visit www.bcn3d.com. A video of the technology
is available at https://youtu.be/TJ0p4xm5QH0.
MEMS Technology Powers Sterilization Cycle Counter for
Medical Applications
The COVID-19 pandemic has expanded the public's awareness
of health-related issues. Precisely targeted technological
methodologies and devices that can solve specific healthcare
problems are becoming increasingly important for medical applications.
Utilizing microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)
technology, German microsystem technology R&D firm
Hahn-Schickard developed an efficient medical-device sterilization
cycle counter. Being able to autonomously record their
life cycles helps medical instruments protect patients' safety.
Moreover, this capability simplifies hygiene management in
hospitals, clinics, and doctors' offices since no additional activity
is needed to record individual sterilization cycles.
The project revolved around a simple but important specification:
the maximum allowable number of steam sterilization
cycles for reusable medical devices. Since the sterilization process
requires exposure to extreme conditions of relative humidity
and temperature, any device designed to operate in these
conditions needs to be both robust and impervious to degradation
over time. This environment would prove challenging for
most conventional electrical sensing devices.
The current method of manufacture for this type of MEMS
device involves bonding three wafers (in this case, 100 mm in diameter)
in a layered stack, using separate buffered oxide etch
(BHF) wet-etching steps for both the top and bottom glass wafers,
as well as multiple associated processing steps. This is neither an
elegant nor an efficient solution to realizing such a device.
250 µm
Fig. 1 - Infrared light microscope image of a gear wheel after v-HF releasing
process.
Medical Design Briefs, December 2022
n A Simpler Process
Hahn-Schickard developed a greatly simplified, single-step
vapor hydrogen fluoride (v-HF)-based micromachining manufacturing
process that eliminates the need for the bottom
glass wafer. The process uses a memsstar ORBIS 3000™ tool
that includes both v-HF and an anti-stiction self-assembled
monolayer (SAM) coating process chamber to control moisture
variation.
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