Development of an additively-manufactured functionally-graded expandable implant via the application of the adaptive response surface method: feasibility study on intramedullary humerus nail

The paper introduces the concept of the rational design of a deployable humeral intramedullary nail plug based on a honeycomb structure used for the surgical treatment of humeral shaft fractures. The concept serves for to restore the axial alignment of bone fragments and to maintain stability via bone-nail friction and locking screws. The design nail plug was gained by optimisation process the Latin Hypercube Sampling Design algorithm and Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm. It was shown that we can use statistical shape function combined by 3 D printing for designing of a new rationally designed implants.