Structural analysis of a surgical guide for pedicle screws with 3D printable materials

Surgical guides for pedicle screws are important tools that aid surgeons realize complex spinal surgeries with more accuracy and better results than a hands-free technique. Still, acquiring a surgical guide has its own problems. For example, hospitals obtain them via 3rd parties that need to fabricate and deliver these tools before a spinal fusion surgery. And being a patient specific tool, surgical guides need to adapt to the anatomy of the patient. Clinical facilities could fabricate their own surgical guides with an engineering department or doctors with CAD modeling skills. To help clinical facilities 3D print their own surgical guides, a structural analysis of this tool with two easy access 3D printing materials is first needed. This was validated through modeling the compliance with the requirements for surgery. The simulations find that both PLA and ABS show resistance to the stresses received during surgery and it is consistent with an elastic deformation. Finally, a workflow is presented to better understand the study.