BONEZONE Magazine

For decades, innovation in spine focused on improving implants, refining surgical techniques and increasing fusion rates. While those goals remain important, today’s advances are shifting the conversation beyond simply achieving successful fixation. Increasingly, implant manufacturers are developing technologies designed to minimize tissue disruption, improve implant fixation and create a more favorable environment for bone healing — all while allowing surgeons to perform less invasive procedures.

Additive manufacturing is already transforming orthopedics, but the industry’s next barrier to overcome is scale. Moving from prototypes to reliable, high-volume production requires more than just expanding printer capacity. Emerging additive technologies demand stringent validation, rigorous process controls and deliberate manufacturing strategies that can deliver consistent, compliant outcomes over the long run.

Early conversations around additive manufacturing in orthopedics centered purely on technical possibility. But as printing technologies have matured, additive has evolved beyond novelty hype. The question among development teams has shifted from “Can we print this?” to a more strategic decision of, “Should we?” “That second question is the key because there are a lot of things you can print, but there’s often no good reason to,” said Mark Morrison, Ph.D., Research Director at Smith+Nephew.

Robotic platforms sure do make an impression in exhibit halls and marketing campaigns. Improved surgical precision! Better patient outcomes! Less soft tissue damage! It’s hard not to get caught up in the hype, but real-world adoption of the technology that promises to transform joint replacement surgery has stalled between 20% and 30%.

Earlier this month, Sujoy Bhattacharjee, M.D., performed the first all-ceramic total knee replacement at the Max Institute of Robotic Joint Replacement in India. The BPK-S Integration Ceramic knee system was the result of a collaboration between PETER BREHM, a German-based medtech company that specializes in the development of joint replacement and spine implants, and the ceramics manufacturer CeramTec, which produces the BIOLOX delta material.

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Total joint arthroplasty is one of the most successful procedures in modern medicine, restoring mobility and quality of life for millions of patients each year. Yet behind that clinical track record, a straightforward supply chain question remains underexplored: How many orthopedic OEMs know whether their Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) bearing components depend on a single upstream source? For many, the honest answer is they are not sure.

For decades, orthopedic implant development followed a familiar path. Engineers designed an implant, manufactured prototypes, tested performance, refined the design, and repeated the process until the desired outcome was achieved. Today, that process is changing. Advances in computational modeling, simulation, and artificial intelligence enable engineers to evaluate thousands of potential design iterations digitally before a single part is manufactured.

When OrthoPediatrics launched its first canulated screw in 2008, the company’s portfolio was relatively simple to manage. Things have gotten a bit more complicated since then as the company has grown at an average annual rate of 20%. That level of growth is a good thing, but it’s also created operational challenges related to moving a large and diverse product portfolio from non-sterile to sterile packaging.

Medartis commenced official U.S. launch of the TITAN Nail System, expanding the company’s upper extremity trauma portfolio with a intramedullary fixation solution designed to address fractures of the phalanges and metacarpals. The system received FDA 501(k) clearance in April. The new Titan nail stabilizes the bone from within rather than with a plate-and-screw construct and is designed to reduce soft tissue exposure and operating time in suitable indications.