AccScience Publishing / IJB / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/IJB025290292
CASE STUDY
Early Access

Customized 3D-printed prosthesis for reconstruction of bilateral traumatic complex knee defects: A case report

Gang Zhao1 Yongqiang Zhang1 Longfei Liu1 Longxin An2 Futian Zhang1 Da Huo1 Xuecheng Sun1 Xiaoming Yang1* Naibo Feng1*
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1 Department of Trauma Orthopedics, Weifang People's Hospital, Shandong Second Medical University, Weifang 261000, China
2 Shandong Second Medical University, Weifang 261042, China
Received: 17 July 2025 | Accepted: 8 August 2025 | Published online: 8 August 2025
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multifunctional Bioprinting for Tissue/Organ Engineering)
© 2025 by the Author(s).. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

Composite knee tissue defects involving bone, meniscus, and ligaments caused by high-energy trauma are rare and present significant reconstructive challenges. We report a case of a 50-year-old woman with bilateral asymmetric knee injuries from a traffic accident, including right medial femoral condyle loss with medial collateral ligament (MCL) deficiency, and left-sided bone–meniscus–MCL complex loss, accompanied by 20% total body surface area skin degloving. Treatment was performed in three stages: debridement, soft tissue coverage, and final reconstruction using data-driven mirror modeling to design patient-specific 3D-printed titanium implants. The right MCL was reconstructed using a LARS artificial ligament. At 12-month follow-up, stable bone–implant integration, flap viability, and functional recovery were observed, with knee flexion of 120° (left) and 80° (right), and Knee Society Scores of 65 and 70. This case highlights the feasibility of personalized 3D-printed implants in complex bilateral knee reconstruction.

Keywords
Knee bone defect
Medial collateral ligament
Perforator flap
3D printing
LARS ligament
Funding
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82302031), the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (No. ZR2024QH033).
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
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International Journal of Bioprinting, Electronic ISSN: 2424-8002 Print ISSN: 2424-7723, Published by AccScience Publishing