Development of a Controlled Pneumatically Actuated Lung Phantom for Surgical Simulation Support and Collapse Modeling

Abstract

Lung collapse is an essential step in thoracic surgery and artificial pneumothorax. It is governed by the interaction between alveolar pressure (Palv) and intrapleural pressure (Ppl), with transpulmonary pressure (Ptp) determining lung expansion and collapse. Although pleural pressurization provides the primary trigger, the evolution of is influenced by airway outflow as air leaves the lung, affecting lung deflation. A comparable situation occurs during singlelung ventilation in thoracic surgery, where one lung remains ventilated while the contralateral lung is isolated and collapses through airway outflow. This work presents a pneumatically actuated lung phantom for investigating pressure-driven lung inflation and collapse under controlled conditions. The system uses independent airway and pleural pressure pathways, enabling continuous measurement of Palv and Ppl and real-time calculation of Ptp. Two collapse configurations with identical pleural pressurization and different airway outflow conditions (active and passive) are investigated. The experiments show that lung collapse occurs as Ptp approaches zero and may progress further as Ptp becomes negative, while different airway outflow conditions produce distinct pressure-time trajectories. In the active outflow configuration, negative Ptp values are observed due to externally applied airway suction, resulting in accelerated lung deflation. The proposed phantom provides a reproducible platform for pressure-based investigation of lung collapse and may support thoracic surgical simulation.