HYBRID EVENT: You can participate in person at Rome, Italy or Virtually from your home or work.

8th Edition of

International Conference on Materials Science and Engineering

March 10-12, 2025 | Rome, Italy

Materials 2023

Barbara Flora

Speaker at Materials Science and Engineering 2023 - Barbara Flora
Tor Vergata University of Rome, Italy
Title : Strategies of additive manufacturing in cranioplasty

Abstract:

With advances of 3D printing technologies, possibilities to produce patient specific cranioplasty emerged, as an alternative to the use of autologous bone.
In our study, three different strategies were applied exploiting Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) additive manufacturing, and compared: (i) direct printing of PLA (polylactic Acid) prosthesis, mold casting of Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) prosthesis using (ii) silicone mold, (iii) Thermoplastic Poly Urethane (TPU).
All the techniques studied returned good results in terms of geometrical accuracy, and cosmetic appearance.
Direct printing of PLA prosthesis resulted the fastest strategy, followed by PMMA casting into silicone mold, and TPU mold, in the order. In terms of costs, TPU mold featured the lowest price, followed by silicone mold, and direct printing of medical-grade PLA skull-cap.
Nevertheless, the definitive choice of procedure still strongly depends on the expertise of the team, facilities available within the hospital structure, and a contingent preference on a specific material over another.

Audience take away:

  • To reproduce new TPU molds
  • Could be a different mold material for PMMA
  • Could be a cheaper material to produce mold

Biography:

Dr. Barbara Flora studied Otorhinolaryngology at the “Tor Vergata” University of Rome with the guide of Professor S. Di Girolamo, and graduated as a MD at the La Sapienza University of Rome in 2014. She then joined the research group of Prof. Paolo Di Nardo (CIMER Center of regenerative medicine) during the PhD in Tissue Engenieering and Technology  for body function in 2019, during her last yeatr of residency in Otorhinolaryngology. She will disccuss her PhD thesys this year at the same institution. She just completed her one year of fellowship program in Facial Plastic Surgery for the European Academy of Facial Plastic Surgery (EAFPS) supervised by Dr Neves in Lisbon, Portugal.  France she obtained the position of an Associate Professor at the IGIC. She has published  differents articles in SCI(E) journals.)

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