초록
In large-scale hospitals, the department of biomedical engineering should always provide quick repair service for damaged medical devices to guarantee continuous patient treatment. However, in actual circumstances, there are so many time-consuming issues that delays device repair for weeks or even months; therefore, it is required to prepare alternative ways for quick repair service. In this study, we first mentioned about the regulation issues in Korea about the 3D printing-based medical device repair, and then introduced the results of our preliminary study that evaluated the feasibility of 3D printing-based medical device repair before real-field application. Results of the study demonstrated that, in all of the 23 cases, parts for repair that were manufactured by 3D-printing were successfully fixed and connected to the main body of the original device, and showed sufficient rigidity for protecting internal parts of the device. Considering the experimental results, medical device repair by applying 3D printing technology can be a promising alternative in cases when regular repair process is not available or takes too much time.