The planning of surgeries, the testing of medical devices, the training and evaluation of surgeons and surgical procedures would all benefit from artificial organs that match the properties of human tissue. In particular, because of the fast development of minimally invasive surgical technologies, including the rise of surgical robotics, there is a demand for models that permit the quantitative evaluation of surgical methods, for both medical device testing and surgical training. We developed a novel organ phantom. We have developed a hybrid fabrication method that allows us to obtain anatomically correct organ models using soft materials that mimic a number of important properties of real organs, including the visual appearance, its haptic response, and its appearance under CT and ultrasound. In addition, we showed that our procedure can be used to make organs that can be used for endoscopic procedures and training. We succeeded in developing the first realistic full urinary tract model, including a kidney, a bladder and a prostate. The latter could be used for a full surgical simulation of a transurethral resection. Our artificial phantoms permit the evaluation of the surgical procedure under identical conditions using high resolution medical imaging. An automated algorithm was developed to 3D reconstruct three-dimensional models and analyze multiple parameters to subjectively and quantitatively evaluate the surgical outcomes.
