Development of a Modular Tissue Phantom for Evaluating Vascular Access Devices

Central vascular access (CVA) may be critical for trauma care and stabilizing the casualty. However, it requires skilled personnel, often unavailable during remote medical situations and combat casualty care scenarios. Automated CVA medical devices have the potential to make life-saving therapeutics available in these resource-limited scenarios, but they must be properly designed. Unfortunately, currently available tissue phantoms are inadequate for this use, resulting in delayed product development. ...A SuperPump (ViVitro Labs, Victoria, BC, Canada) was used for generating pulsatile, cardiac mimicking arterial flow within the flow loop test platform (Figure 1D)... ...In conclusion, the tissue phantom model presented addresses a current testing gap for developing central vascular access medical devices. Troubleshooting is essential and having to rely on live, or even ex vivo, animal testing for evaluating a medical device with physiological mimicking fluid flow or pressure levels will slow device development...