3D Printers Set to Create Dissolvable Medical Implants

As a kid, Michael Sealy was tall. A little clumsy, he says. And he has lasting proof: two metal screws in his left elbow.

The southpaw underwent surgery after tripping and fracturing that elbow in the fifth grade. Surgeons inserted the screws to hold his ulna bone together. The bone healed. The screws remained. Now an assistant professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Sealy has mixed business with that displeasure by pioneering a novel approach to a decades-long quest.

“Instead of having these permanent metal implants, let’s have one that degrades over time,” he said. “Let’s eliminate this whole idea of a second surgery to have these implants removed.”

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