Cin Mitchell D, Koka Krishna, Darragh Justin, Nourmohammadi Zahra, Hamdan Usama, Zopf David A
College of Medicine, Central Michigan University, 1632 Stone St, Saginaw, MI 48602, USA.
Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, Carl A. Gerstacker Building, 2200 Bonisteel Blvd Room 1107, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
Biomimetics (Basel). 2024 Aug 1;9(8):464. doi: 10.3390/biomimetics9080464.
Surgical simulators are crucial in early craniofacial and plastic surgical training, necessitating synthetic materials that accurately replicate tissue properties. Recent critiques of our lab's currently deployed silicone surrogate have highlighted numerous areas for improvement. To further refine our models, our group's objective is to find a composition of materials that is closest in fidelity to native oral mucosa during surgical rehearsal by expert craniofacial surgeons. Fifteen platinum silicone-based surrogate samples were constructed with variable hardness and slacker percentages. These samples underwent evaluation of tactile sensation, hardness, needle puncture, cut resistance, suture retention, defect repair, and tensile elasticity. Expert craniofacial surgeon evaluators provided focused qualitative feedback on selected top-performing samples for further assessment and statistical comparisons. An evaluation revealed surrogate characteristics that were satisfactory and exhibited good performance. Sample 977 exhibited the highest performance, and comparison with the original surrogate (sample 810) demonstrated significant improvements in critical areas, emphasizing the efficacy of the refined composition. The study identified a silicone composition that directly addresses the feedback received by our team's original silicone surrogate. The study underscores the delicate balance between biofidelity and practicality in surgical simulation. The need for ongoing refinement in surrogate materials is evident to optimize training experiences for early surgical learners.
手术模拟器在早期颅面和整形外科训练中至关重要，因此需要能精确复制组织特性的合成材料。最近对我们实验室目前使用的硅胶替代品的批评突出了许多有待改进的方面。为了进一步优化我们的模型，我们团队的目标是找到一种材料组合，在颅面外科专家进行手术演练时，其与天然口腔黏膜的逼真度最为接近。我们制作了15个基于铂硅胶的替代样本，其硬度和松弛度百分比各不相同。这些样本接受了触觉、硬度、针刺、抗切割、缝线保留、缺损修复和拉伸弹性等方面的评估。颅面外科专家评估人员对选定的表现最佳的样本提供了有针对性的定性反馈，以便进行进一步评估和统计比较。一项评估显示替代样本的特性令人满意且表现良好。样本977表现最佳，与原始替代品（样本810）相比，在关键领域有显著改进，突出了优化后的材料组合的有效性。该研究确定了一种硅胶组合，直接回应了我们团队原始硅胶替代品所收到的反馈。该研究强调了手术模拟中生物逼真度与实用性之间的微妙平衡。显然，为了优化早期手术学习者的培训体验，替代材料需要不断改进。
