Hey folks, just been chatting with urology nurses at work and wondering if anyone has or knows of medical models that could be 3D printed? Specifically something staff can practice putting a catheter in. I’m hoping there is something about so I don’t have to sculpt a whole model
Not for that, but I printed a model of the brachial plexus to teach about nerve blocks. I also made a small section of a spine to explain epidurals and subarachnoid blocks to patients.
One thing that comes to mind would be material for practice. You might need special filament to make it “realistic”?
If you’re looking for a scale model of the organ system, that should exist and hopefully others know more :)
I suspect the most useful approach is to print a mold and cast using soft resin of some sort.
Yep this. 3d print works great for silicon casting
And to cast it soft too.
Needs a stiff core.
For, uh, reasons.
I don’t think realistic texture is all that important. Most of the practice is more about the technique and maintaining sterility throughout.
Just to clarify, you don’t care about the sterility of specific part? Fdm prints in particular can’t be kept sterile.
I assume you need it to be flexible-ish at the very least, which you might achieve with TPU, but I still say mold casting is the way to go.
The part itself don’t need to be sterile. The important part is maintaining sterile technique, which is the main issue with catheters due to the area involved and the amount of tubing that goes in.
Whether or not the stuff is actually sterile doesn’t matter.
Exactly this. It sounds like OP wants it to be an instructional aid. It does not need to be sterile, the people practicing need to practice how to don sterile gloves, then drape and prep the site sterilly and insert the catheter correctly.
Sorry for the slow reply, I posted that while on lunch.
The thought was more to use the model as a teaching aid, a few of our patients go home with a catheter and its easier to demonstrate on a model rather than just images and explaining it, we have “Harry” who is an abdomen with genitals, but don’t have a female model. I can see my search history is about to get super interesting.
It wouldn’t need to be sterile at all, it’s just a teaching tool for patients before they are discharged home. Showing exactly where things go and why is much easier to understand when you can see it, an absolute ideal model would be a cross section.
A company in the US does it. Can’t remember it’s name.
They are manufacturing realistic models (including “blood”) for doctors to practice complicated operations. As a data source, they use imaging from the patient.
A major part of their business is the knowledge what resins they need to use (realistic feeling and cut).
That sounds really cool, I’ll have to research that just for myself.
Stratasys’ J850 totally has this capability. Full color printing with variable durometer elastomers.
Thank you, I’ll check them out also.
