Monteiro, Virginia S. A., Gasser, Christian T., Moerman, Kevin M. "Subject specific bladder morphology and correspondent 3D mold lattice structure for organ reconstruction." MIT Media Lab

Abstract

Urinary diversion and bladder augmentation are common reconstructive urological procedures to treat patients with advanced invasive bladder cancer, as well as patients with compromised bladder compliance, i.e. congenital abnormal bladder. Bladder augmentation and bladder replacement may be accessed by reconstruction, considering substitute materials that presents detrusor-like mechanical properties. Whilst tissue engineering of the bladder has been studied for decades [1], a full organ with adequate mechanical and urodynamic responses, is still not available. Capturing the bladder’s three-dimensional geometry would be the first step towards understanding its biomechanical properties and urodynamic response [2]. Thus, in this work we introduce a method that allows the generation of individualized virtual bladder models for patient specific scaffold construction.