Design and Production of an Articulating Needle Guide for Ultrasound-Guided Needle Block Manufactured With a Three-Dimensional Printer: Technical Communication.
Needle guides may allow the practitioner to align the needle with the probe when ultrasound-guided nerve block is performed. The author's goal was to design and fabricate an inexpensive ($1.90), disposable, needle guide that could articulate over a range from 85 degrees to 0 degrees with a three-dimension printer. Three-dimensional representations of an L50, L25, and C 60 ultrasound probe (Sono Site, Bothell, WA) were created using a laser scanner. Computer-aided design software (Solid Works, Waltham, MA) was used to design a needle bracket and needle guide to attach to these probes. A three-dimensional printer was used to fabricate the needle bracket and guide with acrylonitrile polybutadiene polystyrene. An echogenic needle was held in plane with the needle guide. The author performed a supraclavicular block in a morbidly obese patient. The needle was easily visualized. Similar guides that are commercially available cost as much as $400. A knowledge of computer-aided design is necessary for this work.
From the Department of Anesthesiology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland.
Paul E
PE
Bigeleisen
D000181:Acrylonitrile / Q000737:chemistry; D002070:Butadienes / Q000737:chemistry; D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D004209:Disposable Equipment; D020724:Elastomers / Q000737:chemistry; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009339:Needles; D009407:Nerve Block / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D009767:Obesity, Morbid / Q000150:complications*; D011137:Polystyrenes / Q000737:chemistry; D066330:Printing, Three-Dimensional; D000076227:Stereolithography; D014159:Transducers; D018084:Ultrasonography, Interventional / Q000295:instrumentation*
D002070:Butadienes; D020724:Elastomers; D011137:Polystyrenes; C028834:polybutadiene; D000181:Acrylonitrile