Comparison of 3D Printing Technology and Artificial Intelligence Assisted in Total Knee Arthroplasty

This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of personalized 3D printing osteotomy guides and artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted surgical planning in total knee arthroplasty (TKA). A cohort of 60 cases was randomly allocated into two groups: one receiving assistance from personalized 3D printing osteotomy guides and the other benefiting from AI-assisted surgical planning for the procedure. We compared surgical duration, intraoperative bleeding, postoperative incision drainage, length of hospital stay, surgical accuracy, and postoperative visual analog scale (VAS) and Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) outcomes between the two groups. Continuous data conforming to a normal distribution were analyzed using independent-samples t-tests, while categorical data were assessed with chi-square tests. The findings of our study indicated that the 3D printing-assisted TKA (3D-TKA) group experienced significant lower levels (p < 0.05) of bleeding and drainage (160.1 +/- 24.3 mL, 199.5 +/- 29.6 mL) compared to the AI-assisted TKA (AI-TKA) group (174.7 +/- 25.7 mL, 223.8 +/- 29.2 mL). Furthermore, the duration of surgery and hospital stay (81.4 +/- 8.9 min, 7.7 +/- 1.3 day) was significantly longer (p < 0.05) in the 3D-TKA group than the AI-TKA group (72.9 +/- 10.0 min, 6.8 +/- 1.6 day). No significant differences (p > 0.05) were observed in surgical accuracy between the two groups. On the first day postoperation, VAS scores were significantly lower (p = 0.001) in the 3D-TKA group. In summary, each surgical approach offers distinct benefits. 3D printing primarily enhances patient outcomes, whereas AI assistance tends to favor surgical efficiency.