German surgical device manufacturer KLS Martin has made patient-specific ceramic implants built from Lithoz‘s calcium phosphate material LithaBone TCP a standard offering on its IPS Gate platform, and the company expects to reach 500 delivered implants by the end of 3Q 2026. IPS Gate is KLS Martin’s web-based platform for planning, ordering, and delivering its Individual Patient Solutions (IPS) implants.
Lithoz, based in Vienna and founded in 2011, develops high-performance ceramic materials, bioceramics, and 3D printers, and secured ISO 13485 certification for its quality management system in 2025 to meet medical device industry standards.
Resorbable Implants Built Through LCM
For the LithaBone TCP implants, KLS Martin uses Lithoz’s Lithography-based Ceramic Manufacturing (LCM) 3D printers, an additive manufacturing (AM) technology that allows for patient- and case-specific geometries as well as tailored porosities influencing how the scaffolds degrade and are replaced by newly formed bone. Fixation can be achieved with titanium screws or with KLS Martin’s SonicWeld Rx system, which uses resorbable polymer pins to create a fully resorbable implant unit and eliminate the need for a second surgery.
Frank Reinauer, Senior Director Division Implant at KLS Martin, said the addition gives surgeons broader access to patient-specific bioceramic implants through the digital planning workflow already used for other IPS solutions, and that it “shortens the path from CT data to a case-specific, tailored-porosity scaffold in a surgeon’s hands,” translating into faster treatment planning and more predictable delivery timelines for patients who rely on bone-regenerating implants.
The milestone highlights the growth of a 12-year research collaboration between the two companies, during which multiple clinical studies documented the safety and efficacy of 3D printed ceramic bone replacement solutions.
Johannes Homa, CEO of Lithoz, said what began 12 years ago as a research collaboration with KLS Martin “has grown into a proven clinical pathway with scalable solutions.” He pointed to KLS Martin’s results with the technology as a sign that resorbable, additively manufactured bone-regenerating implants are gaining broader clinical acceptance worldwide.
From Clinical Validation to Routine Ordering
KLS Martin and Lithoz’s specific strategy here is turning bioceramic implants into a routine digital-ordering product: the companies have moved away from treating patient-specific resorbable implants as a specialized, research-driven offering, folding them instead into the surgeon-facing IPS Gate platform and using the digital workflow surgeons already rely on for KLS Martin’s other implant types.
A comparable approach appeared in 2023 with 3D Systems‘ VSP Connect, a cloud-based surgical planning portal, powered by Enhatch, that links device representatives, case managers, designers, and surgeons in a single digital workflow for producing and delivering patient-specific implants and instruments. Like IPS Gate, it moves personalized device delivery out of a one-off, project-based process and into a standing platform surgeons can use routinely. The difference is scope: VSP Connect integrates 3D Systems’ own FDA-cleared workflows, printers, and materials, while IPS Gate is built around a single company’s implant line.
A related example is Insight Surgery‘s rebrand from 3D LifePrints around its EmbedMed platform, an FDA-cleared digital tool that lets surgeons move from patient scan data to personalized surgical guides and devices without a separate design cycle for each case. It shares KLS Martin’s approach of routing patient-specific devices through a surgeon-facing digital system, though EmbedMed centers on planning software instead of a specific implant material.
Across these cases, digital platforms are becoming the mechanism that turns patient-specific 3D printed devices from bespoke projects into a standard surgical option.
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Featured image shows KLS Martin now offers implants made from LithaBone TCP as an official product on their web-based IPS. Photo via KLS Martin.
