Project Details

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Device for measuring shunt effectiveness during hydrocephalus surgery

Company: PSU College of Medicine 3

Major(s):
Primary: BME
Secondary: ME
Optional: EE

Non-Disclosure Agreement: NO

Intellectual Property: YES

Hydrocephalus is a chronic disease that leads to an abnormal accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain. The only treatment is a surgically implanted shunt device, draining fluid from the brain to another body cavity. Shunts have a high rate of complications and failure resulting in suffering, reduced quality of life, and reoperation to repair or replace shunts. Currently surgeons use a rudimentary approach to assess implanted shunts in the operating room. The goal of this project is to develop a new device that will be able to accurately quantify shunt effectiveness in a sterile manner. Project includes mentorship from an expert neurosurgeon.

About

Our mission is to help bring the real-world into the classroom by providing engineering students with practical hands-on experience through industry-sponsored and client-based capstone design projects. Since its inception, the Learning Factory has completed more than 1,800 projects for more than 500 different sponsors, and nearly 9,000 engineering students at Penn State University Park participated in such a project.