Using water-soluble additive manufacturing for cheap and soft silicon organ models

Research output: Contribution to book/Conference proceedings/Anthology/ReportConference contributionContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Daniel Reichard - , Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Author)
  • Markus Gern - , Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Author)
  • Isabel Funke - , National Center for Tumor Diseases Dresden (Author)
  • Sebastian Bodenstedt - , National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) Dresden (Author)
  • Hannes Kenngott - , Heidelberg University  (Author)
  • Beat Peter Müller-Stich - , Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Author)
  • Christian Pylatiuk - , Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Author)
  • Rüdiger Dillmann - , Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Author)
  • Stefanie Speidel - , National Center for Tumor Diseases Dresden (Author)

Abstract

The evaluation and trial of computer-Assisted surgery systems is an important part of the development process. Since human and animal trials are difficult to perform and have a high ethical value artificial organs and phantoms have become a key component for testing clinical systems. For soft-Tissue phantoms like the liver it is important to match its biomechanical properties as close as possible. Organ phantoms are often created from silicone that is shaped in casting molds. Silicone is relatively cheap and the method doesn't rely on expensive equipment. One big disadvantage of silicone phantoms is their high rigidity. To this end, we propose a new method for the generation of silicon phantoms with a softer and mechanically more accurate structure. Since we can't change the rigidity of silicone we developed a new and easy method to weaken the structure of the silicone phantom. The key component is the misappropriation of water-soluble support material from 3D FDM-printing. We designed casting molds with an internal grid structure to reduce the rigidity of the structure. The molds are printed with an FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) printer and entirely from water-soluble PVA (Polyvinyl Alcohol) material. After the silicone is hardened, the mold with the internal structure can be dissolved in water. The silicone phantom is then pervaded with a grid of cavities. Our experiments have shown that we can control the rigidity of the model up to a 70% reduction of its original value. The rigidity of our silicon models is simply controlled with the size of the internal grid structure.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationMedical Imaging 2018
EditorsBaowei Fei, Robert J. Webster
PublisherSPIE - The international society for optics and photonics, Bellingham
ISBN (electronic)9781510616417
Publication statusPublished - 2018
Peer-reviewedYes

Publication series

SeriesProgress in Biomedical Optics and Imaging - Proceedings of SPIE
Volume10576
ISSN1605-7422

Conference

TitleMedical Imaging 2018: Image-Guided Procedures, Robotic Interventions, and Modeling
Duration12 - 15 February 2018
CityHouston
CountryUnited States of America

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0002-4590-1908/work/163294090

Keywords