Prototyping a Thermal Limb: Methods for Building a Thermally Representative Phantom Limb

Abstract

To address the challenges associated with tourniquet induced limb ischemia a team of researchers have been working on developing a limb cooling medical device. One of the challenges in developing a system like this, is simulating and ultimately testing the performance of its cooling effectiveness. During the development cycle of any medical device, it is important to test the performance by simulating the application, yet human testing is often not an option during early development phases. To that end, this paper reports on the use of CAD (computer aided design) modeling techniques in combination with CT scan data and 3D printing to develop a limb prototype or phantom which was used as a thermal test platform. Although these methods were directed at a specific application, the overall strategy and techniques will be informative to a broader medical device design community as it represents the continued convergence of several digital tools.