A team of doctors have used a 3-D-printed titanium implant to treat a Spanish man with a cancerous tumour in his chest wall.

In the first of its kind treatment, the doctors implanted the 3-D-printed titanium rib on 30 August, 2015. Doctors at the Salamanca University Hospital in Salamanca, Spain removed part of his sternum and his rib cage that was affected by the tumour. Usually doctors implant a flat titanium plate in order to reinforce the rib cage structure. However, in order to avoid the plates becoming loose and other complications, the doctors decided to use the 3-D- printed titanium implant.

The surgeons ordered a customizable titanium implant that was just like his sternum and rib cage. The implant was developed by Anatomics, a Melbourne, Australia-based medical device company. The company created a 3-D model of the patient's chest wall and tumour through high-resolution CT scans and a surgical team used the same model to determine where to cut the patient's rib cage.

The implant was printed by Lab 22, a 3-D printing lab of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia's national science agency. The device uses an electron beam to melt titanium powder into a 3-D object made from fine layers. The implant was sent to Spain for the implant surgery after it was printed, finished and polished at the lab.

Doctors said that the patient, who was not named, has been discharged and is recovering.