Modeling of digestive tract lesions using silicone rubber RTV (KE-12)

In order to produce life-size models of digestive tract lesions, we applied silicone rubber RTV (KE-12) over the surface of the resected fresh, half-fixed or completely-fixed specimens to achieve their impressions. Into these impressions, super-hard plaster, acrylics and lysine base were separately poured, with the resultant casts realizing faithful replicas of the original patterns, finely reproducing their mucosal micro-structures. A photofluorogram of the silicone rubber pattern taken by using softex could reveal roentgenographic micromucosal features on a single plane. Clinically, endoscopic casting of lesions in similar procedures could produce their models, providing data available for estimation of the size and depth of an ulcer. Our method would be of help in dynamical pursuit of digestive tract lesions, as well as for comparison of the vital realities of lesions and their histopathological findings. The method may further contribute to reducing the dosage of x-ray bombardment in gastric fluoroscopy.