Desktop Health Announces Hannover Medical School Has Implanted the First Adult Custom Ear Implant with Drug Release Benefits Manufactured on the 3D-Bioplotter

Desktop Health — the trusted production-grade medical 3D printing brand of Desktop Metal, Inc. (NYSE: DM) — today announced that the ENT clinic at Hannover Medical School (MHH) in Germany has used its 3D-Bioplotter Manufacturer Series to produce a customized ear implant with drug release benefits for implantation in an adult patient.

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The ENT clinic at Hannover Medical School (MHH) in Germany has used its Desktop Health 3D-Bioplotter to produce a customized ear implant with drug release benefits for implantation in an adult patient. A growing number of parts bioprinted on the 3D-Bioplotter are being used in patients. (Photo: Business Wire)

The ENT clinic at MHH is the first in the world to use the Desktop Health 3D-Bioplotter to customize an ear implant for a patient's individual anatomy, print it with integrated pharmaceutical ingredients, and implant it.

“We have thus opened the door to a new type of pioneering patient care," said ENT clinic director Prof. Prof. h.c. Thomas Lenarz, MD.

“Our entire team celebrates this important accomplishment by the Hannover Medical School ENT clinic, which has been years in the making,” said Ric Fulop, Founder and CEO of Desktop Metal. MHH purchased its 3D-Bioplotter in 2020 to develop this and other applications.

Fulop noted that bioprinting is entering a new phase. “The benefits of 3D bioprinting are just beginning to move into actual patients, and we celebrate this important shift in medicine that MHH and other medical innovators are driving forward,” Fulop said. “In recent months, we’ve seen the first products developed over many years on the 3D-Bioplotter moving into commercial and patient applications. We celebrate these important milestones, and what they mean for personalized patient care.”

Earlier this month, Chicago-based Dimension Inx announced that its CMFlex synthetic bone graft product has been surgically implanted in two cases. This product — the first 3D printed regenerative bone graft product cleared by the FDA — was developed and is manufactured on the 3D-Bioplotter Manufacturer Series.

Details about the Ear Implant

The MHH patient who received the implant suffered from recurrent narrowing of the auditory canal, which had been treated surgically several times without showing the desired success. The new implant serves a stent function, but also delivers ingredients designed to accelerate healing.