Tomsk State University and Institute of Strength Physics and Materials Science SB RAS, which are actively involved in the creation of new materials, initiated the establishment of a network centre for reconstruction of craniofacial region defects. The consortium also includes the Tomsk Cancer Research Institute, Novosibirsk Research Institute of Traumatology and Orthopedics, Center of New Medical Technologies (Novosibirsk), and TPU.
- The network centre will develop ceramic materials and technologies for their production and will carry out the toxicological and medical research - says Sergey Kulkov, head of the TSU department and head of the laboratory ISPMS SB RAS. - The project aims at manufacturing using 3D-printing implants, for example for oral and maxillofacial surgery. Thus, we get closer to personalized medicine.
The new network centre will develop new technologies that can be used to create any bone products - small and large joints, intervertebral discs, and part of the skull. The need for such prostheses is extremely high. They need for patients who received serious injuries, have birth defects, and cancer patients after radical surgery.
Now in Russia the problem of rehabilitation of such patients is solved by a metal prosthesis, which is often rejected by the body. Removal of the implant in this case causes deterioration of the situation and often leads to disability.
Products from nanoceramics, on the contrary, are accepted by the body as a native. This is confirmed by the latest results of research of Russian and Greek scientists, who conducted the testing bone substitute, created by the scientists of TSU and ISPMS SB RAS under the Federal Programme (14.607.21.0069-RFMEFI60714X0069).
- 3D-prototyping opens up completely new possibilities for return patients to normal life - said Professor Sergei Kulkov. - We can take pictures of the X-ray imaging, and with its help produce 3D-model of the missing bone fragment and send the implant to surgery. By the way, the first such operation will be carried out soon in one of the federal research centres.
It should be added that the new network centre, which is designed to qualitatively improve the rehabilitation of patients with maxillofacial pathologies and diseases of the locomotor system, is one of the components of the TSU’s StrAU Smart Materials and Technologies - an interdisciplinary institution that unites Russian and international scientists.