Dynamic Heart Simulator for Ultrasound-Guided Pericardiocentesis

Pericardiocentesis is an important surgical intervention to treat a medical condition called pericardial effusion, during which excessive fluid accumulates around the heart, potentially leading to life-threatening situation. It involves the insertion of a needle and catheter towards the heart into the pericardial space to drain the excessive fluid under ultrasound (US) guidance. The risky procedure requires surgeons to acquire sufficient training to ensure safe execution of the procedure. However, existing heart simulators lack dynamic features, do not offer realistic images under US imaging, and are not reusable. This work presents a dynamic heart simulator (DHS) with pericardial effusion to mimic the beating motion of the human heart and the realistic US imaging results. The beating heart motion is realized using a hydraulic actuation system connected to a double-layer balloon set. The clear and realistic US imaging results are obtained through a unique formula proposed for the chest tissue and the cardiac muscle. A characterization method was also developed to allow customization of important anatomical parameters in the DHS. The experimental results show that the DHS allowed highly realistic simulation of the beating heart, cardiac muscle, and pericardium under US imaging and has been demonstrated to enable successful US-guided pericardiocentesis.