Surgical treatment outcomes of naso-orbito-ethmoid fractures using 3D printing-assisted patient specific mesh: a prospective study.

Background: This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of three-dimensional (3D) printing-assisted treatment for naso-orbito-ethmoid (NOE) fractures and to compare it with conventional surgical methods.

Methods: This research conducted a retrospective analysis of 84 patients with NOE fractures who received surgical treatment at the 900th Hospital of Joint Logistics Support Force of the Chinese People's Liberation Army from January 2018 to July 2023. The patients were divided into two groups based on whether 3D printing was applied as the experimental group (n = 44) and the traditional group (n = 40). Surgical duration, hospital stay duration, intraoperative blood loss, postoperative visual analog scale (VAS) score, simotic index, and complications were compared.

Results: The 3D printing group had a shorter average surgical time, average hospital stay duration, average indwelling time of drainage tube, intraoperative blood loss, postoperative pain and satisfaction VAS score, and complications compared to the traditional group. No statistically significant differences were found between the two groups in the simotic index after treatment.

Conclusions: Compared to conventional surgical treatment, preoperative 3D printing-assisted treatment for adult patients with NOE fractures can significantly reduce surgical duration, intraoperative bleeding loss and complications, reducing surgical difficulty and improving surgical safety.