Engineers harness the power of 3-D printing to help train surgeons, shorten surgery times

A team of engineers and pediatric orthopedic surgeons is using 3-D printing to help train surgeons and shorten surgeries for the most common hip disorder found in children ages 9 to 16. In a recent study, researchers showed that allowing surgeons to prep on a 3-D-printed model of the patient’s hip joint cut by about 25 percent the amount of time needed for surgery when compared to a control group.