A Low-Cost Ultrasound Phantom for Peritonsillar Abscess Drainage Training

Peritonsillar abscesses (PTAs) are encountered routinely in clinical practice. Ultrasound-guided aspiration has been proven both safe and effective in treating this condition. However, to date, there are no easily produced, low-cost models that enable the practice of point-of-care ultrasound-guided PTA aspiration and PTA diagnosis.

The objective was to create a low-cost, easy-to-produce, ultrasound phantom to train emergency physicians on ultrasound-guided PTA drainage.

We improved on previous work with ultrasound phantoms by creating a refillable phantom that approximates the oral cavity. This enabled learners to gain the manual dexterity necessary to operate an intraoral ultrasound probe while also aspirating a PTA.

We have created a low-cost ultrasound phantom that is amenable to repeated ultrasound-guided aspirations for the purpose of training both resident- and attending-level physicians.

With minimal lead time and readily available equipment, we successfully created a low-cost ultrasound phantom for the purpose of PTA identification and drainage.