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Cadaveric decellularized bone tissue is utilized as an allograft in many musculoskeletal surgical procedures. Typically, the allograft acts as a scaffold to guide tissue regeneration with superior biocompatibility relative to synthetic scaffolds. Traditionally these scaffolds are machined into the required dimensions and shapes. However, the geometrical simplicity and, in some cases, limited dimensions of the donated tissue restrict the use of allograft scaffolds. This could be overcome by additive manufacturing using granulated bone that is both decellularized and demineralized. In this study, the large area projection sintering (LAPS) method is evaluated as a fabrication method to build porous structures composed of granulated cortical bone bound by polycaprolactone (PCL). This additive manufacturing method utilizes visible light to selectively cure the deposited material layer-by-layer to create 3D geometry. First, the spreading behavior of the composite mixtures is evaluated and the conditions to attain improved powder bed density to fabricate the test specimens are determined. The tensile strength of the LAPS fabricated samples in both dry and hydrated states are determined and compared to the demineralized cancellous bone allograft and the heat treated demineralized-bone/PCL mixture in mold. The results indicated that the projection sintered composites of 45–55 wt %. Demineralized bone matrix (DBM) particulates produced strength comparable to processed and demineralized cancellous bone.

Demineralized bone matrix (DBM) is an excellent bone scaffold material, but is available in only limited sizes. An additive manufacturing (AM) method that retains these properties while enabling customized geometry fabrication would provide bone scaffolds for a larger range of geometries while maintaining the benefits of DBM. This work examines laser sintering (LS) of a blend of demineralized bone matrix (DBM) and polycaprolactone (PCL) using a CO2 laser beam. A comprehensive experimental study was carried out to find the conditions that form defect-free layers while still retaining the favorable biological features of DBM. The results identify a process setting window over which LS can be utilized to constructing complex patient-specific scaffolds. With the identified setting, first, the DBM/PCL blend was fused in the LS machine. Parts were then were further strengthened through a post-processing heat treatment. The shrinkage level, skeletal density, mechanical testing, and porosimetry of the resultant samples were compared to traditional machined DBM blocks. The maximum tensile strength of the samples and post-processing shrinkage depends on heat treatment duration. The tensile strength measurements demonstrate that the post-processing conditions can be tuned to achieve the tensile strength of the demineralized bone strips. Evaluation of the dimensional change suggests that the shrinkage along the laser paths is ~0.3% while thickness shrinks the most (up to ~20%). The porosimetry and density studies showed that the final part achieved over 40% porosity with a density comparable to blocks of DBM.