Cardiac training simulator using pump with electronic pressure to trigger ventricular fibrillation

Cardiac surgery training in a realistic surgical environment is assisted by a simulator based on an electromechanical pneumatic pump with associated control and display software. We describe a feedback mechanism for controlling the beating mode of the simulator by means of a electronic pressure sensor incorporated into the pneumatic pump. The sensor was incorporated into an electronic data acquisition board and was used to trigger a ventricular fibrillation (cardiac arrest) mode in the pump control system when the heart attached to the pump is handled by the trainee surgeon, as is typically experienced in a real operation. The mode change also results in changes to simulated vital signs including ECG and pressure traces which are displayed on a monitor within the surgical training environment. Software is described which was designed to drive the pump at various beating rates, display the vital signs, and respond to pressure sensor measurements. The work described is the continuation of a collaboration between the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI), the School of Engineering at the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech), and the Dept. of Mathematics & Computer Science at the University of the West Indies (UWI), which has the aim of producing a computer controlled device and training system capable of simulating the range of intraoperative cardiac behaviours typically found in heart surgery, in order to improve training of resident surgeons.