Simulating the Seldinger Technique (2006-10) | Professor Nigel W. John

Professor Nigel W. John FEG FLSW

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Simulating the Seldinger Technique (2006-10)



The Seldinger Technique is used by interventional radiologists to introduce a guidewire and catheter into a patient’s vascular system. This EPSRC funded project produced a simulator to help train this procedure. It was a project with the Collaborators in Radiological Interventional Virtual Environments (CRaIVE) consortium led by Derek Gould, a consultant interventional radiologist at the Royal Liverpool Hospital. The multidisciplinary team included experts from Bangor, Manchester, Leeds, Imperial and Hull universities.

Our Seldinger simulator combined two haptic devices: vessel puncture with a virtual needle and catheter and guide wire manipulation (Luboz, Hughes, Gould, John, & Bello, 2009). The latter is depicted in the image above. The simulation software displays the instrument interactions with the vessels. Instruments are modelled using a mass-spring approximation, while efficient collision detection and collision response allow real time interactions.

Further Reading

  1. Luboz, V., Hughes, C., Gould, D., John, N., & Bello, F. (2009). Real-time Seldinger technique simulation in complex vascular models. International Journal of Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery, 4(6), 589–596.