LimaCorporate to establish on-site metal Additive Manufacturing facility in New York hospital
January 8, 2019
The Hospital for Special Surgery’s main campus on New York’s Upper East Side (Courtesy HSS)
LimaCorporate SpA, Udine, Italy, a leading medical device company providing reconstructive and custom-made orthopaedic medical implants, is to establish what is claimed to be the world’s first hospital-based metal Additive Manufacturing facility. The new facility will be established for the production of custom implants in partnership with the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS), New York, the USA’s top-ranked orthopaedic hospital.
HSS has been sourcing patient-specific custom implants from Lima’s headquarters in Italy since 2016. Lima’s additively manufactured implants, produced using Electron Beam Melting (EBM) on Arcam systems, feature its proprietary Trabecular Titanium™ biomaterial, which is said to enhance cell migration and vascularisation, facilitating the transport of oxygen, nutrients, ions and bone inducing factors and promoting new bone formation in osseointegration.
LimaCorporate’s acetabular (hip) cup, first produced in 2007 in collaboration with Arcam and Dr Guido Grappiolo, a surgeon at Italy’s Fondazione Livio Sciutto ONLUS (Courtesy GE)
It is believed that the close proximity of Lima’s AM capabilities to the HSS care environment, with the establishment of the new facility, will significantly aid practitioners in their treatment of patients. The facility will be established at HSS’s main campus on New York City’s Upper East Side and is set to benefit from a combination of Lima’s advanced technology and experience, and HSS’s expertise in clinical care and bio-mechanical engineering.
The collaboration is therefore expected to foster and accelerate innovation in complex orthopaedic joint care, resulting in a range of new products and solutions for patients across the USA. Leonard Achan, RN, MA, ANP, Chief Innovation Officer at HSS, stated, “The close integration between surgeons and engineers is invaluable for designing and refining joint replacements and identifying new solutions for the most complex patient cases.”
Luigi Ferrari, LimaCorporate CEO, added, “We are proud to be the first company to bring 3D printing of implants directly to a hospital organisation, where the collaboration between top ranked surgeons and engineers can drive innovation and easier access to patients in the US. This is what defines Lima. A company that has in the past, and will continue in the future, strive to transform orthopaedics by challenging the status quo.”
Lima will be the registered manufacturer for all devices designed and produced at this new, state-of-the-art facility, located at HSS. The facility is expected to be operational by early 2020 and will initially serve hospitals in the region before making the devices available to all providers in the US.
