'This is just the beginning': China approves world's first 3D-printed hip joint for general use

China's approval of the first 3D-printed implant for mass use could lead to a boom in the technology and benefit hundreds of thousands of patients every year, according to medical experts.

The artificial hip joint was created using 3D-printing technology developed by Peking University and a Chinese private medical company. The metal joint can fit the personal requirements of individual patients "perfectly", its creators said.

Chinese doctors have long been examining the applicability of 3D printing to medicine. Last week, a six-year-old boy from Guizhou province with brittle bone disease was able to walk again after a pioneering surgery using a 3D-printed model of a skeleton.

Doctors at the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital used it to examine the boy’s bones in greater detail than X-rays would have allowed, and plan the bone incisions in advance.

Commercial certification of the joint was approved by the China Food and Drug Administration on Friday, state media reported.

Zhang Ke, a researcher on the project at Peking University's Third Hospital, said the number of joint replacement surgeries in China has been increasing more than 30 per cent every year, with about 300,000 patients requiring hip implants in 2014.