An Architecture for Simulating Needle-Based Surgical Procedures

Many surgical procedures use cannulas, guidewires, and catheters in the treatment of life threatening conditions (e.g. cardiac tamponade and tension pneumothorax), or for diagnosis (e.g. diagnostic peritoneal lavage). Simulator development is costly in time and resources. Most computer-based trainers are procedure-specific. Each trainer uses a different hardware configuration. The cost of using multiple simulators for teaching is prohibitive. A result is decreased acceptance of simulation for teaching. A generalized software architecture has been developed that simplifies the process of constructing trainers for needle-based surgical procedures. Different procedures can use the same hardware platform. The architecture has been used to develop two trauma simulators. A third simulator is currently being developed using this architecture.