OpenHELP (Heidelberg laparoscopy phantom)

OpenHELP (Heidelberg laparoscopy phantom)

The openHELP is an anatomically realistic and modular phantom for educational or scientific use in open and laparoscopic surgery. Its data were generated from a CT scan of a healthy, young male undergoing shock room diagnostics. It provides a low-cost, realistic and reproducible environment for testing your computer-assisted devices in human.

These files are under creative commons license for further development and free use in research settings. Please contribute to the further development of this phantom by uploading your requirements and structures in order to widen its use and application.

Parts

Construction of Torso

We evaluated different construction methods as listed below. For our requirements, we cut the torso into three elements and printed it a durable plastic (Polyamide 2200) via selective laser sintering (SLS).

Construction of Organs

We printed the organs in gypsum using a 3D-printer, by which we built a reusable negative mold. The organs were made out of soft silicone with Shore 00 values of 10 and 30 as well as Shore 2A (Ecoflex 00-10, 00-30 and Dragon Skin, Smooth-On Inc. Easton, USA): 00-10 for the intestines and stomach, 00-30 for the kidneys and spleen, 2A for the bladder.

The intestines were created with a bar (2 cm diameter, 50 cm length). An insulation conduit (3 cm diameter for the small, 4.5 cm for large intestines) was slipped over the bar. The space between both the bar and the conduit was filled with silicone. They were wrapped with a latex sheet to fix them on the dorsal wall as an artificial mesentery.

Construction of the Diaphragma and Abdominal Wall

The inflatable abdominal wall (and diaphragma) was created with a latex sheet (thickness 0.35 mm) and attached to the abdominal aperture between a metal wire and 78 magnets, which were glued into drilled holes around the aperture. Any surface irregularities were filled with silicone.

Full Construction and Arrangement

Here are some pictures of the full construction and arrangement process of the phantom:

References:

If you use this dataset, please cite the following paper:

[1] Kenngott, H. G.; Wunscher, J. J.; Wagner, M.; Preukschas, A.; Wekerle, A. L.; Neher, P. et al. (2015): OpenHELP (Heidelberg laparoscopy phantom): development of an open-source surgical evaluation and training tool. In Surgical endoscopy.