Source: https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/a66043921/glue-gun-bone/
Archive: https://archive.is/OzSKq
By Darren Orf Published: Sep 12, 2025 8:30 AM EDT
Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:
In the cases of serious trauma or tumor removal, bones may not be up to the task to repair the gaping holes left behind in the bone. Scientists have designed ways for 3D printers to aid in the healing process, but as New Scientist notes, this can often take a week or even more to create a custom bone fabrication.
This protracted timeline doesn’t help those who experience a serious trauma and need immediate medical attention. So scientists made an "in situ printing system" that creates bone material directly.
Basically, it's a hot glue gun that heals bones.
“Our proposed technology offers a distinct approach by developing an in situ printing system that enables a real-time fabrication and application of a scaffold directly at the surgical site,” Sungkyunkwan University’s Jung Seung Lee, co-author of a study in the journal Device about the breakthrough, said in a press statement. “This allows for highly accurate anatomical matching even in irregular or complex defects without the need for preoperative preparation such as imaging, modeling, and trimming processes.”
Okay, so maybe calling it a “hot glue gun” is selling it short, but the overall mechanics are remarkably similar. First, instead of operating at 100 degrees Celsius as a glue gun would, this device works at a lower departure at about 60 degrees Celsius.
Of course, hot glue itself is best reserved for arts and crafts—not human bodies—so Lee and his team created a bone-like material made up of hydroxyapatite (which fills up 50 percent of a human bone by volume) along with polycaprolactone, a thermoplastic. The mixture also contained two antibacterial compounds to limit infection.
Operationally, the device works just as you’d imagine. This bone material is extruded into the impacted area, allowing bone cells to span large gaps and begin the repairing process.
“Because the device is compact and manually operated, the surgeon can adjust the printing direction, angle, and depth during the procedure in real time,” Lee said in a press statement. “Also, we demonstrated that this process could be completed in a matter of minutes.”
Lee and his team tested the device by repairing severe femoral bone fractures in rabbits. Thanks to the included antibacterial compounds, the rabbits showed no signs of infection or necrosis. They also displayed better bone regeneration outcomes compared with rabbits healed with bone cement, a more common method of repairing fractures.
Lee hopes that future improvements to the antimicrobial additives will open the doors toward human trials, as well as a whole new way to treat traumatic bone injury.
“If these steps are successfully achieved, we vision this approach becoming a practical and immediate solution for bone repair directly in the operating room,” Lee says.
Archive: https://archive.is/OzSKq
Surgeons Can Now Basically Hot Glue Your Bones Back Together
Bones are pretty good at regenerating, but traumatic injury can require some outside assistance.By Darren Orf Published: Sep 12, 2025 8:30 AM EDT
Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:
- After traumatic injury, bone cells need artificial scaffolding to help with the repairing processes.
- While some methods like 3D printing or bone cement can help, scientists in South Korea created a new kind of bone mixture that can be extruded within minutes from a device similar to an arts-and-crafts hot glue gun.
- This mixture itself contains hydroxyapatite (which makes up half of a human bone by volume), a thermoplastic called polycaprolactone, and two antimicrobial compounds to ward off infection.
In the cases of serious trauma or tumor removal, bones may not be up to the task to repair the gaping holes left behind in the bone. Scientists have designed ways for 3D printers to aid in the healing process, but as New Scientist notes, this can often take a week or even more to create a custom bone fabrication.
This protracted timeline doesn’t help those who experience a serious trauma and need immediate medical attention. So scientists made an "in situ printing system" that creates bone material directly.
Basically, it's a hot glue gun that heals bones.
“Our proposed technology offers a distinct approach by developing an in situ printing system that enables a real-time fabrication and application of a scaffold directly at the surgical site,” Sungkyunkwan University’s Jung Seung Lee, co-author of a study in the journal Device about the breakthrough, said in a press statement. “This allows for highly accurate anatomical matching even in irregular or complex defects without the need for preoperative preparation such as imaging, modeling, and trimming processes.”
Okay, so maybe calling it a “hot glue gun” is selling it short, but the overall mechanics are remarkably similar. First, instead of operating at 100 degrees Celsius as a glue gun would, this device works at a lower departure at about 60 degrees Celsius.
Of course, hot glue itself is best reserved for arts and crafts—not human bodies—so Lee and his team created a bone-like material made up of hydroxyapatite (which fills up 50 percent of a human bone by volume) along with polycaprolactone, a thermoplastic. The mixture also contained two antibacterial compounds to limit infection.
Operationally, the device works just as you’d imagine. This bone material is extruded into the impacted area, allowing bone cells to span large gaps and begin the repairing process.
“Because the device is compact and manually operated, the surgeon can adjust the printing direction, angle, and depth during the procedure in real time,” Lee said in a press statement. “Also, we demonstrated that this process could be completed in a matter of minutes.”
Lee and his team tested the device by repairing severe femoral bone fractures in rabbits. Thanks to the included antibacterial compounds, the rabbits showed no signs of infection or necrosis. They also displayed better bone regeneration outcomes compared with rabbits healed with bone cement, a more common method of repairing fractures.
Lee hopes that future improvements to the antimicrobial additives will open the doors toward human trials, as well as a whole new way to treat traumatic bone injury.
“If these steps are successfully achieved, we vision this approach becoming a practical and immediate solution for bone repair directly in the operating room,” Lee says.
