Development of a Modular Tissue Phantom for Evaluating Vascular Access Devices

• Published in: Bioengineering (Basel) Vol. 9; no. 7; p. 319
• Main Authors: Boice, Emily N., Berard, David, Gonzalez, Jose M., Hernandez Torres, Sofia I., Knowlton, Zechariah J., Avital, Guy, Snider, Eric J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 15.07.2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Automation; BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES; Bioengineering; CAD; Computer aided design; femoral; Flow velocity; Fluid flow; Fluid pressure; Gelatin; Hemorrhage; human; hypovolemia; Inserts; medical devices; Medical equipment; Medical personnel; Medical research; model development; Modular design; Modular equipment; nerve fiber; porcine; Product development; Three dimensional printing; tissue phantom; Training; Trauma; Ultrasonic imaging; vascular access device; Veins & arteries; United States > US; vascular access device; automation; medical devices; femoral; nerve fiber; porcine; model development; tissue phantom; human; hypovolemia
• ISSN: 2306-5354; 2306-5354
• DOI: 10.3390/bioengineering9070319

Central vascular access (CVA) may be critical for trauma care and stabilizing the casualty. However, it requires skilled personnel, often unavailable during remote medical situations and combat casualty care scenarios. Automated CVA medical devices have the potential to make life-saving therapeutics available in these resource-limited scenarios, but they must be properly designed. Unfortunately, currently available tissue phantoms are inadequate for this use, resulting in delayed product development. Here, we present a tissue phantom that is modular in design, allowing for adjustable flow rate, circulating fluid pressure, vessel diameter, and vessel positions. The phantom consists of a gelatin cast using a 3D-printed mold with inserts representing vessels and bone locations. These removable inserts allow for tubing insertion which can mimic normal and hypovolemic flow, as well as pressure and vessel diameters. Trauma to the vessel wall is assessed using quantification of leak rates from the tubing after removal from the model. Lastly, the phantom can be adjusted to swine or human anatomy, including modeling the entire neurovascular bundle. Overall, this model can better recreate severe hypovolemic trauma cases and subject variability than commercial CVA trainers and may potentially accelerate automated CVA device development.