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S. Gruber, A. Monfared, N. Blevins, K. Salisbury, J. Stampfl:
"Multi-material middle-ear simulator - generative manufacturing technology for medical applications";
Poster: 4. Wiener Biomaterialsymposium, Wien; 11-15-2010 - 11-17-2010; in: "Tagungsband", J. Stampfl (ed.); (2010), 54.

A successful middle-ear surgery is the outcome of a long training. In developing countries medical personal capable of such operations is limited. A cheap and effective training method is needed to get more doctors ready for these surgeries.

The Stanford Middle-ear Simulator (SMS) could be such a training method for medical personal. It is designed to be a high fidelity, inexpensive, readily available simulator for middle ear surgical training. The scope of it would cover surgeries such as tympanoplasty, stapedotomy, stapedectomy, ossiculoplasty, ossicular chain reconstruction, cholesteatoma surgery and other pathology of the middle ear.

SMS simulates the middle ear cavity with all the ossicles (smallest bones in the human body) and ligaments. The simulator consists of materials with different material properties. There are soft materials for the ligaments and cartilages and hard and brittle for simulating the ossicles. A support box - 17x20x12 mm - holds the original size elements (average adult).

In this work such a simulator is realized by Additive manufacturing technologies (AMT). AMT uses a layer-by-layer approach where material is selectively added to obtain the final geometry. This method allows for the production of complex three-dimensional structures which are impossible to manufacture by traditional manufacturing processes. Thus AMT is particular well suited for the fabrication of small, high detailed parts.