A comparison of homemade vascular access ultrasound phantom models for peripheral intravenous catheter insertion

Abstract

Background: Ultrasound (U/S) guided peripheral IV catheter (PIV) placement is often needed after unsuccessful traditional IV attempts. Commercial U/S PIV training phantoms are expensive and difficult to alter. Non-commercial phantoms have been described; however, there has been no comparison of these models. The primary objectives of this study were to compare the echogenic and haptic properties of various non-commercial phantoms. Secondary objectives were to characterize the cost and ease of making the phantoms. Methods: This prospective observational study trialed six unique phantom models: Amini Ballistics; Morrow Ballistics; University of California San Diego (UCSD) gelatin; Rippey Chicken; Nolting Spam; and Johnson Tofu. Total cost and creation time were noted. Emergency Ultrasound Fellowship trained physicians performed U/S guided PIV placement on each model to evaluate their resemblance to human tissue haptic and echogenicity properties, utility for training, and comparability to commercial phantoms (Likert scale 1–5; higher performance = 5). Results: The Rippey model scored highest for each primary objective with an aggregate score of 4.8/5. UCSD ranked second and Nolting last for all primary objectives, with aggregate scores 3.7/5 and 1.3/5 respectively. Cost of production ranged from $4.39 (Johnson) to $29.76 (UCSD). Creation times ranged from 10 min (Johnson) to 120 min (UCSD). Conclusion: In our study the Rippey model performed best and offered a mid-level cost and creation time. Non-commercial U/S phantoms may represent cost-effective and useful PIV practice tools. Future studies should investigate the utility of these phantoms in teaching U/S guided PIV to novices and compare non-commercial to commercial phantoms.

Development and Remodeling of Point-of-Care Ultrasound Education for Emergency Medicine Residents in Resource Limited Countries during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…The second subject is the ultrasound phantom, which our faculty created for the purpose of the simulated practice of UGPIV with the supplement of some local ingredients. The advantages are low cost, easy to make, and reproducible, which is consistent with other studies [34][35][36]. However, our learners reported it as only "moderately useful".…”

Phantoms for ultrasound-guided vascular access cannulation training: a narrative review

“…Vascular simulation models for training in US-guided cannulation are synthetic or biological. Literature is available in both commercial and homemade, created with different materials and techniques such as gelatin, agar-agar (food products), and animal specimens such as chicken or turkey [11][12][13][14][15]. All these models must have tubular structures inside and be filled with a liquid resembling blood vessels.…”

Development of a Three-Dimensionally Printed Ultrasound-Guided Peripheral Intravenous Catheter Phantom

“…These models may not mimic the contours of the upper arm or the complex vessel anatomies found in patients. Commercial products also tend to be expensive and lack customizability, while traditional homemade blocks made of materials such as animal models, gelatin or, agar tend to degrade easily or require special storage conditions [ 5 , 6 ].…”