Three-dimensional Bioprinting for Bone and Cartilage Restoration in Orthopaedic Surgery.

Notable shortcomings exist in the currently available surgical options for reconstruction of bone and articular cartilage defects. Three-dimensional (3D) printing incorporating viable cells and extracellular matrix, or 3D bioprinting, is an additive manufacturing tissue engineering technique that can be used for layer-by-layer fabrication of highly complex tissues such as bone and cartilage. Because of the scalability of 3D bioprinting, this technology has the ability to fabricate tissues in clinically relevant volumes and addresses the defects of varying sizes and geometries.