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Engineering Additive Manufacturing and Molding Techniques to Create Lifelike Willis’ Circle Simulators with Aneurysms for Training Neurosurgeons

Neurosurgeons require considerable expertise and practical experience in dealing with the critical situations commonly encountered during difficult surgeries; however, neurosurgical trainees seldom have the opportunity to develop these skills in the operating room. Therefore, physical simulators are...

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Autores principales: Chen, Pin-Chuan, Lin, Jang-Chun, Chiang, Chung-Hsuan, Chen, Yi-Chin, Chen, Jia-En, Liu, Wei-Hsiu
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7761873/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33287397
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym12122901
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author Chen, Pin-Chuan
Lin, Jang-Chun
Chiang, Chung-Hsuan
Chen, Yi-Chin
Chen, Jia-En
Liu, Wei-Hsiu
author_facet Chen, Pin-Chuan
Lin, Jang-Chun
Chiang, Chung-Hsuan
Chen, Yi-Chin
Chen, Jia-En
Liu, Wei-Hsiu
author_sort Chen, Pin-Chuan
collection PubMed
description Neurosurgeons require considerable expertise and practical experience in dealing with the critical situations commonly encountered during difficult surgeries; however, neurosurgical trainees seldom have the opportunity to develop these skills in the operating room. Therefore, physical simulators are used to give trainees the experience they require. In this study, we created a physical simulator to assist in training neurosurgeons in aneurysm clipping and the handling of emergency situations during surgery. Our combination of additive manufacturing with molding technology, elastic material casting, and ultrasonication-assisted dissolution made it possible to create a simulator that realistically mimics the brain stem, soft brain lobes, cerebral arteries, and a hollow transparent Circle of Willis, in which the thickness of vascular walls can be controlled and aneurysms can be fabricated in locations where they are likely to appear. The proposed fabrication process also made it possible to limit the error in overall vascular wall thickness to just 2–5%, while achieving a Young’s Modulus closely matching the characteristics of blood vessels (~5%). One neurosurgical trainee reported that the physical simulator helped to elucidate the overall process of aneurysm clipping and provided a realistic impression of the tactile feelings involved in this delicate operation. The trainee also experienced shock and dismay at the appearance of leakage, which could not immediately be arrested using the clip. Overall, these results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed physical simulator in preparing trainees for the rigors involved in performing highly delicate neurological surgical operations.
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spelling pubmed-77618732020-12-26 Engineering Additive Manufacturing and Molding Techniques to Create Lifelike Willis’ Circle Simulators with Aneurysms for Training Neurosurgeons Chen, Pin-Chuan Lin, Jang-Chun Chiang, Chung-Hsuan Chen, Yi-Chin Chen, Jia-En Liu, Wei-Hsiu Polymers (Basel) Article Neurosurgeons require considerable expertise and practical experience in dealing with the critical situations commonly encountered during difficult surgeries; however, neurosurgical trainees seldom have the opportunity to develop these skills in the operating room. Therefore, physical simulators are used to give trainees the experience they require. In this study, we created a physical simulator to assist in training neurosurgeons in aneurysm clipping and the handling of emergency situations during surgery. Our combination of additive manufacturing with molding technology, elastic material casting, and ultrasonication-assisted dissolution made it possible to create a simulator that realistically mimics the brain stem, soft brain lobes, cerebral arteries, and a hollow transparent Circle of Willis, in which the thickness of vascular walls can be controlled and aneurysms can be fabricated in locations where they are likely to appear. The proposed fabrication process also made it possible to limit the error in overall vascular wall thickness to just 2–5%, while achieving a Young’s Modulus closely matching the characteristics of blood vessels (~5%). One neurosurgical trainee reported that the physical simulator helped to elucidate the overall process of aneurysm clipping and provided a realistic impression of the tactile feelings involved in this delicate operation. The trainee also experienced shock and dismay at the appearance of leakage, which could not immediately be arrested using the clip. Overall, these results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed physical simulator in preparing trainees for the rigors involved in performing highly delicate neurological surgical operations. MDPI 2020-12-03 /pmc/articles/PMC7761873/ /pubmed/33287397 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym12122901 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Chen, Pin-Chuan
Lin, Jang-Chun
Chiang, Chung-Hsuan
Chen, Yi-Chin
Chen, Jia-En
Liu, Wei-Hsiu
Engineering Additive Manufacturing and Molding Techniques to Create Lifelike Willis’ Circle Simulators with Aneurysms for Training Neurosurgeons
title Engineering Additive Manufacturing and Molding Techniques to Create Lifelike Willis’ Circle Simulators with Aneurysms for Training Neurosurgeons
title_full Engineering Additive Manufacturing and Molding Techniques to Create Lifelike Willis’ Circle Simulators with Aneurysms for Training Neurosurgeons
title_fullStr Engineering Additive Manufacturing and Molding Techniques to Create Lifelike Willis’ Circle Simulators with Aneurysms for Training Neurosurgeons
title_full_unstemmed Engineering Additive Manufacturing and Molding Techniques to Create Lifelike Willis’ Circle Simulators with Aneurysms for Training Neurosurgeons
title_short Engineering Additive Manufacturing and Molding Techniques to Create Lifelike Willis’ Circle Simulators with Aneurysms for Training Neurosurgeons
title_sort engineering additive manufacturing and molding techniques to create lifelike willis’ circle simulators with aneurysms for training neurosurgeons
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7761873/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33287397
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym12122901
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