gms | German Medical Science

The model was developed within a student research project to provide an opportunity for students to practice restraining pigs with a snare, taking blood samples out of the jugular vein and giving injections into the neck muscle.

For this purpose we obtained a two piece plaster imprint of the head, neck and parts of the forelegs of pig’s cadaver and subsequently casted it with silicone. A plastic hose was used to simulate the jugular vein. To imitate the blood flow colored water was filled into an infusion bottle that was connected to the “jugular vein”. A closed system was created by attaching an elastic balloon to the other end of the tube, which also served to pump the “blood” back into the infusion bottle.

The injection site was padded with a piece of foam rubber on the inner surface of the swine model. Different types of foam rubber were tested to find the one that imitated the resistance of the tissue during injection best. The use of the foam rubber also provided an easy possibility to renew the material of the injection site when damaged.

The “snare” model was built up separately. Two real canine teeth were installed in the upper jaw of the silicone pig’s head. The learning objective in this model was to place the snare correctly behind the teeth.

Disadvantages of our first models were a rough surface, the rigidity of the plastic hose and the fact that the plaster shape could only be used once.

In our second model we took a two-piece plaster imprint again and then used a pan to get a plaster mould and covered it with acrylic lacquer to obtain a mould that could be used several times. A silicone hose was used for the jugular vein.

To simulate a real-life situation, we are planning to implement two more features: The model will be installed on a mobile board, so that it can be moved by an assistant and has to be caught by the student first. As a next step we are planning to integrate a sound system into the model so that different volume levels of a pig that is restrained can be reproduced. Hereby we can create four levels of difficulty: neither sound nor moving, one of them or both.