| abstract |
An antibiotic-eluting article for implantation into a mammalian subject, produced by an additive manufacturing process wherein a polymeric material is concurrently deposited with a selected antibiotic. The additive manufacturing process may be a fused deposition modeling process, a selective laser sintering process, a selective heat sintering process, a digital light processing process, or a stereolithography process. The antibiotic-eluting article may be temporary or permanent orthopaedic skeletal component, an orthopaedic articulating joint replacement component, and/or an external hard-shell casing for an implantable device. One or more bone-growth-promoting compositions may be concurrently deposited with the polymeric material. The implantable device may be a cardiac pacemaker, a spinal cord stimulator, a neurostimulation system, an intrathecal drug pump for delivery of medicants into the spinal fluid, and infusion pump for delivery of chemotherapeutics and/or anti-spasmodics, an insulin pump, an osmotic pump, and a heparin pump. |