When you think of 3D printing, what products do you imagine? Children's toys or building materials? With the rapid development of 3D printing technology, it seems that just about anything can be printed.

Medical workers at the First People's Hospital of Xiaoshan District successfully utilized 3D printing for orthopedic surgery in Hangzhou, the capital of east China's Zhejiang province. The new technology has been used to treat five patients since it was first used in July of 2015.

"In traditional orthopedic surgery, doctors put steel in patients' bodies based only on their past experience and medical expertise. For some complicated surgeries, there is still a certain blindness to the placement. But with the newest 3D printing technology, doctors can obtain three-dimensional data of patients' body parts through CT tomography. This can help doctors make important adjustments and print out the skeletal system of the area of trauma," said Bi Dawei, the director of First People's Hospital of Xiaoshan District.

In this way, doctors can design surgery plans using 3D models and better foresee potential problems during surgery. Therefore, this emerging technology has great prospects for the treatment of joint injuries in the future.