This is a low-budget, easy-to-make, and reusable ultrasound trainer for IV access. The gel is based on agar-agar; it’s cheap, vegan, and can be discarded into a biological waste bin. It is designed to train out-of-plane and in-plane technics to enhance your personal skill visualizing the needle at every time. The vessels are tubeless and filled with water.

Cons:

• after withdrawing the needle you won't be able to advance the plastic part of an iv access, because you will just push it into the gel of the backside

Additional items you need:

• 6x O-Ring ID 13, Thickness 2 mm
• pure Agar Agar
• PTFE Tubes:
  • ID 8, OD 10
  • ID 3, OD 5
  • ID 2, OD 3

Instructions:

1. Print the parts.
2. Stick the corresponding reinforcement sticks into the PTFE tubes and cut them to length.
3. Insert the o-rings into the caps and push them to the bottom, ensuring they fit correctly.
4. Insert the PTFE tube assembly into the holes and close it with the caps.
5. Boil water and mix 400g of water with 22g of agar-agar. Stir slowly to avoid bubbles, and sieve the agar-agar into the mixture.
6. Pour the mixture; it is already quite viscous, so fill it up to the top.
7. Cool it for at least 2 hours.
8. Unscrew all caps, remove the tubes by pushing them from one side to get a grip, and pull them out.
9. Add caps on one side again.
10. Tilt the assembly and fill the holes with tap water. Screw the caps back on while under running water to ensure no air is left in the holes. You may have to check and redo this step.
11. Start scanning and puncturing. Make sure to have a light grip, too much pressure will damage the gel.

Printing in PLA is fine; the hot liquid does not damage the structure as it cools very quickly. You can store it in the fridge for several days.

It is inspired by Nikitichev et al. (Nikitichev DI, Barburas A, McPherson K, Mari JM, West SJ, Desjardins AE. Construction of 3-Dimensional Printed Ultrasound Phantoms With Wall-less Vessels. J Ultrasound Med. 2016 Jun;35(6):1333-9. doi: 10.7863/ultra.15.06012. Epub 2016 May 9. PMID: 27162278)