Soft 3D-Printed Phantom of the Human Kidney with Collecting System

Fabian Adams,Andrew Mark,Daniel Schlager,Peer Fischer,Tian Qiu,Lena Kramer,Arkadiusz Miernik,Ulrich Wetterauer,Benjamin Fritz

doi:10.1007/s10439-016-1757-5

Abstract

Organ models are used for planning and simulation of operations, developing new surgical instruments, and training purposes. There is a substantial demand for in vitro organ phantoms, especially in urological surgery. Animal models and existing simulator systems poorly mimic the detailed morphology and the physical properties of human organs. In this paper, we report a novel fabrication process to make a human kidney phantom with realistic anatomical structures and physical properties. The detailed anatomical structure was directly acquired from high resolution CT data sets of human cadaveric kidneys. The soft phantoms were constructed using a novel technique that combines 3D wax printing and polymer molding. Anatomical details and material properties of the phantoms were validated in detail by CT scan, ultrasound, and endoscopy. CT reconstruction, ultrasound examination, and endoscopy showed that the designed phantom mimics a real kidney’s detailed anatomy and correctly corresponds to the targeted human cadaver’s upper urinary tract. Soft materials with a tensile modulus of 0.8–1.5 MPa as well as biocompatible hydrogels were used to mimic human kidney tissues. We developed a method of constructing 3D organ models from medical imaging data using a 3D wax printing and molding process. This method is cost-effective means for obtaining a reproducible and robust model suitable for surgical simulation and training purposes.

Highlights

In order to plan, test, and practice surgical procedures before they are used in patients it is necessary to have access to organ models.[14]
We developed a method of constructing 3D organ models from medical imaging data using a 3D wax printing and molding process
To confirm that the inner structure of the phantom replicates the real kidney, a second CT scan was performed on the phantom with the same parameters as those used on the real kidney (Fig. 4a)

Summary

Introduction

Test, and practice surgical procedures before they are used in patients it is necessary to have access to organ models.[14]. Surgical simulations are already performed in operative urology and several simulator systems are already in use.[10,15,22] these simulation systems typically lack anatomical details and are often fabricated from hard plastics with material properties that are very different from the target organ. Still play an important role in surgical training and biomedical device testing. Apart from the bioethical considerations, animal models have a number of disadvantages. These include: (1) The morphology and tissue properties of animal organs are often different from human organs; (2) The preparation is expensive and labor intensive; (3) The organs show large variations and quickly start to degrade. It is important to develop realistic artificial organ phantom systems

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion