FURI | Spring 2020

MedTech Surgical Device Innovation for Trapped Lung

Trapped lung is a condition in which the lung cannot expand fully due to a fibrous “peel” that restricts expansion. There are no surgical devices designed specifically for fibrous tissue removal or decortication. This lack of standardization for decortication procedures increases the likelihood of complications and variation from surgeon to surgeon. The team developed a surgical model to mimics the composition and behavior of the fibrous tissue to test novel devices for decortication. This model can be used to test the efficacy of novel decortication devices in order to standardize the decortication procedure, therefore reducing surgical time, error, and variability.