Article
Design and Development of a Hemorrhagic Trauma Simulator
for Lower Limbs: A Pilot Study
Blanca Larraga-García
1,
* , Aurora Pérez-Jiménez
1
, Santiago Ros-Dopico
1
, Javier Rubio-Bolívar
2
,
Manuel Quintana-Diaz
2
and Álvaro Gutiérrez
1
Citation: Larraga-García, B.;
Pérez-Jiménez, A.; Ros-Dopico, S.;
Rubio-Bolívar, J.; Quintana-Diaz, M.;
Gutiérrez, Á. Design and
Development of a Hemorrhagic
Trauma Simulator for Lower Limbs:
A Pilot Study. Sensors 2021, 21, 3816.
https://doi.org/10.3390/s21113816
Academic Editor: Pedro
Viana Baptista
Received: 14 May 2021
Accepted: 28 May 2021
Published: 31 May 2021
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Attribution (CC BY) license (https://
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4.0/).
1
Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros de Telecomunicación, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid,
Av. Complutense 30, 28040 Madrid, Spain; aurora96_5@hotmail.com (A.P.-J.); s.ros@alumnos.upm.es (S.R.-D.);
a.gutierrez@upm.es (Á.G.)
2
Instituto de Investigación IdiPAZ, Hospital La Paz, C/ Pedro Rico, 6, 28029 Madrid, Spain;
javier84.rubio@gmail.com (J.R.-B.); mquintanadiaz@gmail.com (M.Q.-D.)
* Correspondence: blanca.larraga@upm.es; Tel.: +34-91-06-72168
Abstract:
One of the main preventable leading causes of death after a trauma injury is the hem-
orrhagic shock. Therefore, it is extremely important to learn how to control hemorrhages. In this
paper, a hemorrhagic trauma simulator for lower limb has been developed and a pilot study has
been accomplished to trail the simulator. Four different bleeding scenarios have been tested per
participant, gathering information about the manual pressure exerted to control the bleeding. Data,
altogether, from 54 hemorrhagic scenarios managed by final year medical students and doctors were
gathered. Additionally, a post-simulation questionnaire, related to the usability of the simulator, was
completed. All the participants managed to control the simulated bleeding scenarios, but the pressure
exerted to control the four different scenarios is different depending if the trainee is a student or a
doctor, especially in deep venous hemorrhages. This research has highlighted the different approach
to bleeding control treatment between medical students and doctors. Moreover, this pilot study
demonstrated the need to deliver a more effective trauma treatment teaching for hemorrhagic lesions
and that hemorrhagic trauma simulators can be used to train and evaluate different scenarios.
Keywords: hemorrhagic trauma; clinical simulation; training; patient care
1. Introduction
1.1. Traumatic Injury
The traumatic injury is one of the 10 leading causes of death and disability in the
world, being the main cause of death for people under 35 years old [
1
–
3
]. Accidents, which
are the main cause of traumatic injuries [
2
], are placed in the fifth position in the ranking of
main causes of death in Europe [4].
Within the traumatic injuries, the hemorrhagic shock is the main preventable cause
of death [
5
]. Therefore, detecting hemorrhages as soon as possible and learning different
strategies to control them is key. Traumatic injuries occur initially in a prehospital envi-
ronment and, depending on the country, the treatment of how to deal with a hemorrhagic
scenario may vary [
6
–
8
]. In the military environment, protocols on how to deal with
hemorrhages are more spread out. Therefore, some of the actions used in this military
environment can be adopted in the civilian environment, especially after the events that
promoted the Hartford consensus which highlights that everyone could save a life [
9
]. In
this way, actions like the campaign “Stop the Bleed” [
10
–
13
] take momentum, approaching
training to laypersons so they could learn how to identify different types of hemorrhages
and how to control them.
Sensors 2021, 21, 3816. https://doi.org/10.3390/s21113816 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sensors
