A Clinical Trial to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of 3D Printed Bioceramic Implants for the Reconstruction of Zygomatic Bone Defects

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of patient-specific additive-manufactured CaOSiO(2)-P(2)O(5)-B(2)O(3) glass-ceramic (BGS-7) implants for reconstructing zygomatic bone defects at a 6-month follow-up. A prospective, single-arm, single-center, clinical trial was performed on patients with obvious zygoma defects who needed and wanted reconstruction. The primary outcome variable was a bone fusion between the implant and the bone evaluated by computed tomography (CT) at 6 months post surgery. Secondary outcomes, including implant immobilization, satisfaction assessment, osteolysis, subsidence of the BGS-7 implant, and safety, were assessed. A total of eight patients were enrolled in the study. Two patients underwent simultaneous reconstruction of the left and right malar defects using a BGS-7 3D printed implant. Cone beam CT analysis showed that bone fusion at 6 months after surgery was 100%. We observed that the average fusion rate was 76.97%. Osteolysis around 3D printed BGS-7 implants was not observed. The mean distance displacement of all 10 implants was 0.4149 mm. Our study showed no adverse event in any of the cases. The visual analog scale score for satisfaction was 9. All patients who enrolled in this trial were aesthetically and functionally satisfied with the surgical results. In conclusion, this study demonstrates the safety and promising value of patient-specific 3D printed BGS-7 implants as a novel facial bone reconstruction method.