Investigating ballistic gelatin based phantom properties for ultrasound training

The simulation has become an important tool for healthcare practitioners who have difficulty in accessing patients to learn ultrasound imaging modes. The ultrasound phantoms are specially designed objects that are used or imagined to evaluate, analyze and adjust the performance of test devices. These phantoms for ultrasonography devices are expensive, and low-cost alternatives have provided an educational experience that does not give the best result. Ballistic gelatin is a member of the 250A-Bloom hydrogel family that resembles human muscle tissue in terms of its mechanical properties. The 250A-Bloom Ballistic Gelatin is prepared with different mixing ratios to be made the mechanical tests such as gunshot, compression and electrical conductivity measurement. The mechanical results are compared with in order to measure the similarity of our model we prepared to human muscle tissue. It is showed that the model phantom model has very close mechanical properties to human muscle tissue at time-dependent characteristics of mechanical test results. It is also measured how long it can last without degradation with the time required to use it in the simulation. Based on these results, our phantom model is recommended as a model for the creation of phantom limb model. Consequently, this model is a much more affordable alternative and easy to produce, it facilitates to work with any organ model in ultrasound imaging for healthcare practitioners.