Christchurch firm 'grows' faces for people
"It's a little bit like Star Trek," the company's founder and business development manager Paul Morrison, said.
The privately owned firm specialises in manufacturing surgical instruments used in hip and knee replacement operations but is also using emerging technology to grow custom-made titanium implants for people.
It is using an electro-beam melting (EBM) machine, owned by United States company Medical Modelling, to produce implants to a much finer detail than traditional methods like machining.
Enztec has done about 12 cases so far and has been able to improve people's quality of life, Morrison said.
"It's absolutely spectacular technology and it really does make a difference to the patient. We've grown faces for people where it's just made a massive difference to their quality of life."
The machine uses a 3D computer model based on data from a CT scan of the patient and a prescription from the surgeon. Layers of titanium powder are then fused together by the electron beam to build up the implant over 10 to 15 hours.
"It's like growing titanium. You can't see a thing. It looks like a refrigerator and you open the door and pull out this implant."
Morrison said it was the complete opposite to how implants were made now where they start with a peice of titanium and machine it down to the size they wanted.
The EBM was much easier, more accurate, reduced theatre time and fitted beautifully, Morrison said. "It's quite a quantum leap. We don't use it for all implants but we are certainly using it more and more."
There had been cases where people had holes left in their faces following the removal of a tumour and in the past it had been difficult to get ready-made products to fit properly.
Christchurch orthopaedic surgeon Paul Armour used the technology for a 70-eayr-old woman who has grossly disabled as a result of a dislocation of her old hip replacement, which had gone through the bony pelvis. "Having something that conformed to the patient's anatomy made a potentially technically difficult procedure into something much easier."
Enztec employees 36 staff and was created in 1993 by Morrison and orthopaedic surgeon James Burn, who still own the firm along with Auckland Investment firm Birnie Capital.
In August it won the Canterbury export deal of the year award at the 2008 Canterbury Export Awards.
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