3D soft tissue printing—from vision to reality—review of current concepts.

Background: Tissue engineering, as stated by Langer and Vacanti, is an interdisciplinary field that applies the principles of engineering and life sciences toward the development of biological substitutes that restore, maintain, or improve biological tissue function or a whole organ. Tissue engineering incorporates several important components in order to create in vivo mimicry. Those factors are tissue specific and each organ poses a unique scope of requirements. Several unique fabrication methods exist: extrusion printing, inkjet, laser-assisted printing, stereolithography, and FRESH. Methods: A systematic literature review via PubMed was performed to identify appropriate publications incorporating "keyword" phrases, "soft tissue", "3D-printing", "tissue engineering", and "bio-engineering", between Jan 2015 and Jan 2022 according to the PRISMA standard flowchart. Results: Search result yielded 1350 papers. Two-hundred seventy eigth papers were assessed for inclusion criteria. Fifty-five full text articles were included in the qualitative synthesis. Articles were analyzed by the senior author (Y.W.) and divided to various fields of research: 3D-bioprinting technology, cellular component, bioink matrix and clinical implications. Each of these fields has undergone substantial development in recent years. Conclusions: Due to the importance of 3D bioprinting and the never-ending progress in this field and its contribution to the field of medicine in term of clinical implementations, we believe that surgeons and physicians alike should familiarize themselves with the basic concepts of 3D-bio printing in order to keep track of the ever-growing literature of this fascinating sphere. We believe that a stepwise exposure of young physicians to this field is mandatory, from their basic science training through their internship and continuing advanced education. Level of evidence: Not gradable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]