Patient-specific and hyper-realistic phantom for an intubation simulator with a replaceable difficult airway of a toddler using 3D printing

Abstract

Difficult tracheal intubation is the third most common respiratory-related adverse co-morbid episode and can lead to death or brain damage. Since difficult tracheal intubation is less frequent, trainees have fewer opportunities to perform difficult tracheal intubation; this leads to the need to practice with a hyper-realistic intubation simulator. However, conventional simulators are expensive, relatively stiffer than the human airway, and have a lack of diversity in terms of disease variations and anatomic reproducibility. Therefore, we proposed the development of a patient-specific and hyper-realistic difficult tracheal intubation simulator using three-dimensional printing technology and silicone moulding and to test the feasibility of patient-specific and hyper-realistic difficult intubation simulation using 3D phantom for the trainee. This difficult tracheal intubation phantom can provide a realistic simulation experience of managing various difficult tracheal intubation cases to trainees, which could minimise unexpected tissue damage before anaesthesia. To achieve a more realistic simulation, a patient-specific phantom was fabricated to mimic human tissue with realistic mouth opening and accurate difficult airway shape. This has great potential for the medical education and training field.