Designing and manufacturing equipment for mock temporary pacing wire surgery
Date
2024
Authors
Marriette, Cole
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Volume Title
Publisher
University of Victoria
Abstract
During my time at Dr. Giles’ lab, I mostly contributed to an ongoing project that aims to simplify the installation of temporary pacing wires by using an electromagnetic field generator and tracking software. By doing so, the surgical installation process would no longer require a trained MRI specialist to assist in the surgery, assistance which is seldom available in remote and indigenous communities. My role in this project was to design equipment that will be used by surgeons from Royal Jubilee Hospital during a mock surgery to test the project’s efficacy. This included a specialized clamp to stabilize the field generator, a wire holder designed to interface with a luer lock, a palpation probe, and a pacing box to induce the artificial heartbeat. This series of design projects taught me important lessons in mechanical engineering, such as tolerancing, making drawing, and efficient design. I also learned to use engineering software such as SolidWorks and Materialise Mimics, as well as FDM (Fused deposit modeling) and PLA (polylactic acid) 3D printing. Overall, this research internship has struck a good balance between producing meaningful results for the Biomechanics Lab and further developing my engineering competencies.
Description
Keywords
biomechanics, orthopaedic, design, internship, testing, pacemaker