Relaxation and Adhesive Biomechanical Properties of Biosynthetic Materials for a Preoperative Brain Model

Neurosurgeons can improve primarily with experience which can be maximized with the proper training materials. The experience of the neurosurgeons right now is coming from either cadavers or actual surgery. Cadavers are not unlimited since there are a limited amount of people donating their body to science. It would be a lot safer if the surgeons were not gaining experience from surgeries which is exactly what you want them to have the experience for. MRI scans of patients can be 3D printed to create a model that exactly replicates the patient’s brain. The problem is that there are no materials that can be 3D printed and act like the brain. Hydrogels and emulsions are the closest materials to the brain. The purpose of this project is to test hydrogels’ and organogels’ biomechanical properties in an effort to find one that most closely resembles the brain. The hydrogels with the closest perceived mechanical properties to the brain are ones that include a varying combination of a chromium variant, gelatin, oils, agarose, and water. The emulsion with the closest mechanical properties to that of the brain is one with a mixture of lecithin, flax seed oil, borax, and water. The results will allow neurosurgeons to be more successful in the surgeries they perform and it will also allow for faster learning of techniques by neurosurgeons