High-tech medical plastics will help Boston Marathon victims

As swarms of police staged a door-to-door manhunt in Watertown, MA, doctors at nearby hospitals in Boston continued working on at least 40 victims of the Patriots Day Boston Marathon bombing still in serious or critical condition.

Surgeons say they are using plastics technology developed to save and improve lives of soldiers wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan in the past 10 years.

Those with severe head wounds could be treated with cranial implants made with polyetheretherketone (PEEK) or one of its close chemical cousins. Those with amputated limbs or feet could use new high-tech prosthetics often made with carbon composites or reinforced engineering thermoplastics that provide toughness and strength.

Pioneering work with custom-fitted cranial implants for wounded soldiers was done at Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC) in Washington, D.C. The custom implants made with additive manufacturing (3-D printing) technology cut surgical times by more than 50%.

"The time savings can be directly attributed to the improved implant design and attached fixation," said Stephen L. Rouse, DDS, a government contractor working in the 3-D Medical Applications Lab at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. "Large implants were previously multi-piece constructs, and were slower to place and fixate."

WRAMC surgeons used titanium powder that was laser sintered into the shape of the missing skull bone.

Since then there has been increasing use of ketone polymers that are either machined or also made with selective laser sintering machines.

One example of a new technology is "OsteoFab" implants made from polyetherketoneketone (PEKK).  Oxford Performance Materials (South Windsor, CT) recently received  FDA 510(k) clearance for its OsteoFab Patient Specific Cranial Device (OPSCD). According to the company, it is the first approval for an additively manufactured polymer implant.

"It is our firm belief that the combination of PEKK and additive manufacturing is a highly transformative and disruptive technology platform that will substantially impact all sectors of the orthopedic industry," said Scott DeFelice, CEO Oxford Performance Materials.

Prosthetic devices are another technology where high-tech plastics are playing an increasingly important role.

A carbon composite foot is used in a bionic foot developed by researchers on the MIT campus where the Marathon bombing suspects were first apprehended last night. A spin-off company called iWalk is now revolutionizing ankle and foot prosthetics  with a battery-powered bionic ankle. It actively adapts to a person's actual gait using Bluetooth technology.