Salvage treatment of traumatic total talar loss: a case report on the eventual application of 3D printing technology
Siyu Zhou, Jingyi Liang, Jianye Hou, Lihui Xu, Qiushi Liang, Xiyue Chang, Jie Liu, Feng Tian, Wan’an Xiao · 2026
Read Salvage treatment of traumatic total talar loss: a case report on the eventual application of 3D printing technology by Siyu Zhou, Jingyi Liang, Jianye Hou, Lihui Xu, Qiushi Liang, Xiyue Chang, Jie Liu, Feng Tian, Wan’an Xiao (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13495514.txt.
Description
Siyu Zhou and a large team present a 2026 case report of rebuilding an ankle after total loss of the talus, the bone that links leg to foot. A 26-year-old woman lost the bone after a car crash left a crushed, open fracture. Such loss is rare, has no standard fix, and often ends with the bone removed and the leg shortened by fusion.
Surgeons first put the talus back, yet it collapsed as its tissue died, leaving a void, and a drooping foot was also corrected. A custom 3D-printed porous titanium spacer, built to her anatomy, filled the gap. Four years on she walked without pain and scored well on a standard foot and ankle scale. The authors claim the first use of printing for this loss and argue the case shows how personal implants can rescue defects that fusion would settle at a cost.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Siyu Zhou, Jingyi Liang, Jianye Hou, Lihui Xu, Qiushi Liang, Xiyue Chang, Jie Liu, Feng Tian, Wan’an Xiao |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 22581 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |