Construction of a “Virtual Patient Simulation” Environment for Design and Testing of Customized Adapters of Medical Use Respiratory Masks

Abstract

AbstractStandard size of respiratory masks present difficulties while adapting to different patients’ faces, which may lead to ineffective respiratory therapies. To overcome these difficulties, taking advantage of the growing popularity that 3D applications are acquiring in the field of medicine, a methodology that could be easily integrated into a hospital’s service was developed to manufacture customized adapters for respiratory masks in a Virtual Patient Simulation (VPS) environment that enables to test adapter–mask–face suitability/fit. Present work presents a methodology, which can be implemented in a hospital’s service, consisting in building a virtual simulation of the real clinical scenario (VPS) from scratch by using reverse engineering tools and creating the 3D object of the mask–adapter based on the position of the objects incorporated in the simulation to later manufacture and test it in a real clinical case.KeywordsVirtual patient simulationReverse engineeringAdditive manufacturingPhotogrammetryPatient-specific instruments