Application of three-dimensional printing technology in peripheral hip diseases

The incidence of peripheral hip diseases is increasing every year, and its treatment is always tricky due to the complexity of hip joint anatomy and a variety of surgical methods. This paper summarizes the application research and progress of three-dimensional (3D) printing technology in different peripheral hip diseases in recent years published by PubMed from January 2017 to July 2021 with the search terms including “3D or three-dimensional, print*, and hip*. In general, the application of 3D printing technology is mainly to print bone models of patients, make surgical plans, and simulate pre-operation, customized surgical navigation templates for precise positioning or targeted resection of tissue or bone, and customized patient-specific instruments (PSI) fully conforms to the patient’s anatomical morphology. It mainly reduces operative time, intraoperative blood loss, and improves joint function. Consequently, 3D printing technology can be customized according to the patient’s disease condition, which provides a new option for treating complex hip diseases and has excellent application and development potential.