A teaching and research simulator for therapeutic embolization.
A teaching machine that simulates intravascular conditions found during a human therapeutic embolization has been constructed. A submersible pump drives fluid through a circuit of tubing. One limb of a Y (a vascular bifurcation) located in this circuit leads to a model arteriovenous malformation. Catheters placed in this limb may introduce embolic materials by various techniques, and those techniques may be learned and practiced under safe and stress-free conditions. Loss of an embolus into the other limb which supposedly leads to normal tissues is caught and displayed by a sieve, providing immediate feedback that a technique error has occurred.
D004621:Embolization, Therapeutic; D006801:Humans; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D009485:Neuroradiography / Q000193:education*; D012106:Research; D013663:Teaching